Iran UN inspectors find radioactive traces and raise new concerns

Last year, Iran blocked IAEA inspectors from checking the affected sites for seven months, leading to a deadlock. Tehran has long denied attempting to create an atomic bomb, saying all of its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes, such as power generation and health care. There was no immediate response from Iran to the findings.

In Washington, White House and State Department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In recent months, Iran has scaled up its nuclear operations, exceeding many of the limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal it negotiated with the US, European powers, Russia and China. These moves began more than a year after the Trump administration halted the deal in May 2018 and subsequently imposed widespread sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted under the agreement.

It has also threatened to restrict IAEA inspectors’ access to sites starting later this month. These steps have raised growing concern in Washington about Iran’s nuclear intentions.

US and Israeli officials have said the detention of nuclear material, equipment and information in Iran, contained in a nuclear archive invaded by Israel in 2018, shows that the country plans to restart its nuclear weapon work.

In a report in June, the IAEA asked questions from Iran for clarification on a range of work that could be used for nuclear weapons. One suspicion was that Iran was drilling a uranium metal disk that could be used to make material for a neutron initiator, experts say, an important part of a nuclear weapon. A second suspicion was that nuclear material had been brought in at a location where Iran may have tested explosives that could be used to detonate a nuclear weapon.

The agency is also asking Iran about another undeclared location where illegal uranium conversion and processing may have taken place, it said.

According to the agency, all suspected activities took place in the early 2000s or earlier. Two of the sites were razed to the ground years ago. Another site was cleaned up by Iran in 2019, the IAEA reported. The IAEA said it has not ruled out that materials from this nuclear work have been used more recently.

“The discovery of radioactive material at these sites would indicate that Iran does indeed have undeclared nuclear material, despite its denials,” said David Albright, a former weapons inspector and chair of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. “It would indicate that Iran has had a nuclear weapons program in the past, which has likely led the IAEA to call for access to more locations and more explanations from Iran.”

The IAEA said in 2015 that it believed Iran had a structured nuclear weapons program until 2003 and continued some activities thereafter. Washington and the European powers have come to similar conclusions.

The IAEA has not yet reported the latest findings to member states, the diplomats said. It is currently asking Iran for an explanation for the material, one said, a standard practice. The agency declined to comment on the new findings.

The IAEA has previously said that in 2019 it found multiple undeclared uranium particles, including enriched uranium, at a separate secret location in Tehran, believed to be a nuclear equipment warehouse. It was that finding that prompted the agency to access other sites in Iran.

The US, European powers and others have urged Iran to cooperate fully with the agency’s ever-broadening investigation into Iran’s past nuclear activities.

Tensions have increased over the past 18 months over the IAEA’s investigation of the undeclared material. The core business of the IAEA is to secure nuclear material used for civilian purposes and to ensure that it is not diverted for nuclear weapons. Iran is believed to declare all nuclear material in the country under its international obligations.

Last year, member states in the IAEA board voted to denounce Iran for non-cooperation. Iran dismissed the move as unfair pressure and was backed by Russia and China.

Iran says the IAEA probe is based on fabricated Israeli information and has urged the agency to complete its work quickly. Iran’s threat to restrict IAEA inspectors’ access to sites later this month if the US fails to lift sanctions on Tehran could limit the agency’s ability to deepen the probe.

After the IAEA requested access to the two sites in January 2020, Iran repeatedly refused until IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi traveled to Tehran in August and struck a deal. Inspectors took samples at the two sites and made an additional inspection at another site shortly after.

While the samples were being tested in labs, Mr. Grossi put pressure on Iran to properly explain the presence of the uranium particles found at the Tehran site in 2019.

Mr. Grossi has vowed to continue the IAEA investigation until Iran justifies all undeclared material. In November, he described Iran’s statements for the uranium particles found at a site in Tehran as “not technically credible” and said Iran should be “fully and immediately” accountable for the material. Iran has said it is working with the agency.

Write to Laurence Norman at [email protected]