Bloomberg: Iran has produced almost 15,000 pounds of the gas used to enrich uranium, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency obtained by Bloomberg News. Bloomberg
Iran has produced almost 15,000 pounds of the gas used to enrich uranium, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency obtained by Bloomberg News.
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Iran has failed to clarify important questions about its secret nuclear activity after more than two years of investigation by the UN group.
“Iran’s full transparency is indispensable and overdue,” the report said.
Prepared by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei for the agency’s member countries, the report comes a day after the European Union threatened to call Iran before the UN Security Council because of its nuclear program.
The U.S. and the EU are concerned that the program might lead to the production of an atomic bomb. The EU has offered Iran incentives such as trade ties and technology to abandon the program. Iran has rebuffed those offers, saying its nuclear work is aimed at generating electricity that would enable it to export more oil. ElBaradei’s report did not reach a conclusion on whether Iran is making a nuclear bomb.
The report said Iran has converted raw uranium into about seven tons of a gas called uranium hexafluoride that can be used to make atomic weapons. Former IAEA nuclear inspector David Albright said in a telephone interview from Washington that the amount would be enough for one atomic bomb.
The IAEA report also said it could not pinpoint all aspects of Iran’s development of centrifuges, which are used in the uranium enrichment process. Under terms of a November agreement with the U.K., France and Germany, Iran pledged to stop producing them. The exiled opposition National Council for Resistance in Iran maintains that Iran didn’t stop making centrifuges.
