UN nuclear chief heads to Iran after near weapons-grade uranium find

SpaceWar.com reports: “UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi is expected in Tehran later Friday for discussions with officials after his agency’s inspectors in Iran found uranium particles enriched to just under weapons-grade level.

The visit by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency comes with the Vienna-based organisation seeking to get Iran to increase cooperation over its nuclear activities.

A confidential IAEA report seen Tuesday by AFP said uranium particles enriched up to 83.7 percent — just under the 90 percent needed to produce an atomic bomb — had been detected at Iran’s underground Fordo plant about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital.

Tehran denies wanting to acquire atomic weapons, and last week said it had not made any attempt to enrich uranium beyond 60 percent purity, noting that ‘unintended fluctuations… may have occurred’ during the enrichment process.

The discovery came after Iran had substantially modified an interconnection between two centrifuge clusters enriching uranium, without declaring it to the IAEA…”

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