VIENNA AND PARIS – UN nuclear watchdog finds uranium particles in two Iranian sites it inspected after months of walling, diplomats say, and prepares to reprimand Tehran for failing to explain, which could complicate U.S. efforts to revive nuclear diplomacy.
Iran’s finding and response runs the risk of damaging the new U.S. administration’s efforts to reinstate the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which President Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump abandoned.
Although the sites where the material was found were believed to have been inactive for nearly two decades, opponents of the nuclear deal, such as Israel, say evidence of undeclared nuclear activities shows that Iran does not he has acted in good faith.
Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Kazem Gharibabadi, declined to comment, as did the IAEA itself.
A senior Iranian official said, “We have nothing to hide. That’s why we allowed inspectors to visit these places.”
Iran has set a deadline for next week for Biden to lift sanctions imposed by Trump or to halt rapid IAEA inspections under the agreement, which lifted sanctions in exchange for halting Iran’s nuclear program. Next week is also when the IAEA is expected to publish a quarterly report on Iran’s nuclear activities.
Seven diplomats told Reuters that the agency would take this opportunity to rebuke Iran for not explaining with satisfaction how uranium particles ended up in two undeclared places. The reprimand could come in the quarterly report or in an additional report published the same day.
U.S. and IAEA intelligence agencies believe Iran had a secret and coordinated nuclear weapons program that it stopped in 2003, which Iran denies. The 2015 nuclear deal did effectively establish a line under this past, but Iran is still required to explain to the IAEA evidence of undeclared past activities or materials.
The material was found during rapid IAEA inspections conducted at both sites in August and September last year, after Iran banned access for seven months.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that radioactive materials were found in samples taken by inspectors at the two sites, although the newspaper did not specify what the material was.
Four diplomats following the agency’s work closely told Reuters that the material found in these samples was uranium.
Identifying the material as uranium creates a burden on Iran to explain it, as enriched uranium can be used in the core of a nuclear weapon. Iran is obliged to account for all the uranium so that the IAEA can verify that it is not diverting any to a weapons program.
Two of the sources said the uranium found last year was not enriched. However, its presence suggests nuclear material or undisclosed activities at the sites, which Iran should have declared.
The complete IAEA findings are a top secret within the agency and only a small number of countries have been informed of the details.
Five diplomats said that after the IAEA faced Iran with the findings, it gave unsatisfactory answers. Two of them said Iran told the agency that the traces were the result of contamination by radioactive equipment that was moved from another location, but the IAEA verified that the particles from the sites they did not match.
One diplomat reported the exchanges, but not the detailed findings, which he said Iran had given “unlikely answers”, describing Iran’s response as “typical delay tactics”.
The agency has said it suspects that one of the sites where uranium conversion work was carried out, one step in processing the material before enrichment, and the other was used for explosive testing.
The seven diplomats said they expected the agency to call Iran for failing to explain the traces found at the two sites, as well as for its lack of explanation for material previously found elsewhere in Tehran, Turqazabad.
Diplomats said it was still unclear whether the Board of Governors of 35 IAEA countries, which meets the week after the quarterly report, would take steps to condemn Iran. Several said the focus was on efforts to save the 2015 deal, with Washington rejoining it.
“Everyone is waiting for the Americans,” one diplomat said.