By François Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran’s exclusion of some of the U. N. nuclear watchdog’s most experienced and trained inspectors from the equipment allowed to operate there is a “very serious blow” to the agency’s work, nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said. Wednesday.
Tehran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in September that it was taking the step known as dedesignation. The IAEA said at the time that even if Iran allowed it to do this, the way it did it is unprecedented and negative for its work.
“This is a very serious blow to our ability to do this,” Grossi told a news conference when asked to what extent the move had affected the IAEA’s ability to conduct meaningful inspections in Iran. He suggested that Tehran reconsider its decision.
Uranium enrichment is at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program and the procedure by which uranium is purified to grades of up to 60%, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons-grade. Iran denies that it seeks nuclear weapons, but no other state has enriched itself to this point without generating them.
The IAEA will not say how many inspectors have been removed from its designation. Diplomats put the figure at just over a handful. While this is only a fraction of the more than one hundred inspectors assigned to Iran, they are among the IAEA’s most senior inspectors. sensible experts in uranium enrichment, officials said.
One diplomat estimates that eight inspectors were banned in this wave, all French and German. This leaves only one enrichment expert on Iran’s team, he added.
A senior diplomat estimates that the number of other enrichment experts who can be counted on with the expertise deemed necessary is most likely less than five.
“There are many countries with this type of experience. And normally, the countries where this experience exists are very reluctant to disseminate it. They were also inspectors who knew the facilities well and had been there for years to inspect the facilities,” the senior diplomat said. , in reference to non-designated inspectors.
The importance of this experience was illustrated in January when an inspector detected a sophisticated but very extensive upgrade in a cascade or cluster of uranium enrichment centrifuges that Iran had not reported to the IAEA. This upgrade resulted in an increase in the enrichment level to a record 83. 7%.
The inspector who spotted the change, a Russian enrichment expert, got rid of his appointment later this year, some time before the others, many diplomats said.
(Additional reporting via John Irish in Paris; editing by Frances Kerry)
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