Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Sunday, February 19, 2023

Report: UN inspectors find Iran has enriched uranium to 84%, near weapons-grade

19 February 2023, 9:03 pm 1 Edit

Various centrifuge machines line a hall at the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility, on April 17, 2021. (Screenshot/Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting-IRIB, via AP)

Various centrifuge machines line a hall at the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility, on April 17, 2021. (Screenshot/Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting-IRIB, via AP)

Inspectors from the US atomic agency discovered uranium enriched to 84 percent purity in Iran last week, closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, Bloomberg reports, citing two unnamed senior diplomats.

Iran has been known thus far to have enriched uranium to 60%. A purity of 90% is needed to produce nuclear weapons.

IAEA inspectors are reportedly trying to determine whether Tehran intentionally made the move or if it was an “unintended accumulation within the network of pipes connecting the hundreds of fast-spinning centrifuges used to separate the isotopes.”