Iran's Expansion of Uranium Stockpile Adds to `Urgency' of UN Inspectors

Iran increased its uranium stockpile while failing to boost cooperation with United Nations inspectors probing whether the Persian Gulf country is trying to build nuclear weapons, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The country increased its supply of 20 percent enriched uranium to 22 kilograms (48.5 pounds) compared with 5.7 kilograms in May at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant in Natanz, the Vienna-based IAEA said today in a 11-page restricted report obtained by Bloomberg News. Iran has produced 2,803 kilograms of uranium enriched to less than 5 percent compared with 2,427 kilograms reported in the IAEA’s May 31 report.

“The passage of time and the possible deterioration in the availability of some relevant information increases the urgency of this matter,” according to the report. “Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the Agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

Uranium, the key ingredient for producing nuclear power or bombs, is at the center of the international dispute over Iran’s atomic work. Iran, home to the world’s No. 2 oil and gas reserves, is under four sets of UN sanctions because it refuses to curtail its nuclear work, which the U.S. and European Union say is a shield for weapons development.

Iran, which insists it wants to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, has been under UN investigation since 2003. The country’s Russian-built nuclear power reactor in the southern city of Bushehr was turned on Aug. 21.

Tehran Reactor

The country will begin installing machines to make uranium metal for its Tehran Research Reactor in November, the IAEA reported. Iran told inspectors they plan on testing the machines by September 2011.

The IAEA said that it complained to Iran’s envoy’s envoy in a July 20 meeting that the country’s objections to individual investigators “hampers the inspection process and thereby detracts” from the ability of the Agency to do its job. Tehran’s government barred two inspectors in June after claims that they had leaked and fabricated information about the nuclear program.

About 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium could yield the 15 to 22 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium needed by an expert bomb-maker to craft a weapon, according to the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Center, a non- governmental observer to the IAEA that is funded by European governments.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano will present the report’s findings to the UN nuclear agency’s 35-member board of governors when it convenes Sept. 13 in the Austrian capital.

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