Nuclear watchdog: Iran did not underreport its enrichment activities

Feb 22, 2009, 15:18 GMT

Vienna - Iran did not underreport the amount of uranium it has enriched, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman said Sunday, reacting to media reports about the difference between figures given by Iran and by the IAEA.

In its latest report on Iran released Thursday, the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog said Iran had enriched 839 kilograms of uranium through November, about a third more than the initial estimate given by the operators of Iran's Natanz enrichment plant.

'The agency has no reason at all to believe that the estimates of the low enriched uranium produced in the facility were an intentional error by Iran,' IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said, adding 'they are inherent in the early commissioning phases of such a facility when it is not known in advance how it will perform in practice.'

United Nations Security Council members on Friday said the IAEA offered proof that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, while some raised the spectre of Iran being able to produce an atomic bomb with the amount of enriched uranium it has.

The IAEA report showed that Tehran now has 1,010 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, which is theoretically enough for one nuclear weapon, although the material would have to be enriched to a higher level first. Iran insists it has no such intentions.

'No nuclear material could have been removed from the facility without the agency's knowledge since the facility is subject to video surveillance and the nuclear material has been kept under seal,' Fleming said.

IAEA inspectors verify estimates once a year in nuclear installations. In this process, they not only weigh the nuclear products, but also residual material that gets caught in the plant's systems, according to a diplomat close to the IAEA.

Diplomats close to the IAEA said late last week that in order to to make bomb material, Iran would have to reconfigure the Natanz plant and throw out IAEA inspectors, or use a secret, unknown plant.

'They are going on with the programme and not complying anymore with the IAEA's rules,' French Ambassador Jean Maurice Ripert said Friday at UN headquarters in New York. 'We will have to deal with it.'

By continuing to enrich uranium, Iran is ignoring three rounds of Security Council resolutions, which have also called unsuccessfully on Tehran to clear up questions about alleged studies in the past that appear to have been related to nuclear weapons.