Iran Agrees to Restore Monitoring Equipment at Nuclear Sites

Iran has agreed to restore cameras and other monitoring equipment at its nuclear sites and to enable more inspections at a plant where near-weapons-grade uranium particles were recently identified.

The breakthrough occurred when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, who had earlier met with the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, in Tehran, returned to Vienna and announced that some of the suspended monitoring activities would be reinstated.

Grossi stated that Tehran has offered assurances to the UN nuclear agency, including the restoration of the cameras, that it will finally support an inquiry into the discovery of uranium particles at undeclared sites.

Iran has previously made similar pledges that have generated little to no results. Grossi stated, after returning from Iran before to a meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors, that the country is expected to offer access to information, locations, and persons.

Growing concerns exist that Iran has increased enrichment, but according to Grossi, Tehran has agreed to increase plant inspections by 50 percent. In addition, he validated the agency’s conclusion that there has been no “production or accumulation” of uranium at the higher enrichment level.

According to specialists in nonproliferation, Tehran has no civilian use for uranium enriched to even 60%. If Iran so chooses, a stockpile of material enriched to 90 percent, the threshold required for weapons, might be quickly used to make an atomic bomb.