Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, increased slightly before Israel attacked its nuclear facilities on June 13, a confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog seen by Reuters said on Wednesday.
On June 13, Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% in uranium hexafluoride form, which can be enriched in centrifuges, is estimated to have been 440.9 kg, the International Atomic Energy Agency report said. That is enough, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear bombs, according to an IAEA yardstick.
The UN nuclear watchdog’s talks with Iran on how to resume inspections at sites including those Israel and the United States bombed cannot go on for months on end, its chief told Reuters on Wednesday, pushing for a deal as early as this week.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has had no information from Iran on the status or whereabouts of its stock of highly enriched uranium since Israel launched the first attacks on its enrichment sites on June 13, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi confirmed in an interview.
The IDF believed that Iran had sufficient nuclear material to assemble several nuclear bombs within a short period of time and that Iran had begun ramping up missile production, aiming to increase its arsenal from 2,500 to 8,000 within two years, spokesperson Brig-Gen. Effie Defrin said on June 28.
Strikes rendered Fordow inoperable
The White House distributed a statement to reporters on June 25 from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission stating that the US strike on Fordow rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.
“We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years,” the handout stated.
If Iran does not gain access to nuclear materials, this “achievement can continue indefinitely,” the handout concluded.
The US struck a facility in the mountain ridge in Isfahan, where a stockpile of enriched uranium and facilities related to the nuclear program were likely held, a source familiar with the details of the US operation told The Jerusalem Post on June 22.
Sources added that the Natanz nuclear site has been destroyed, while the Fordow and Isfahan sites suffered “major damage”, but it is unknown yet how much.