IAEA reports no progress in Iran as uranium stock enriched to 60% grows

VIENNA (Reuters) -The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Monday reported no progress in talks with Iran on sensitive issues such as reinstalling surveillance cameras and explaining uranium traces at undeclared sites, according to two quarterly reports seen by Reuters.

At the same time, Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, continued to grow albeit at a slower pace, despite some of it having been diluted, one of the confidential International Atomic Energy Agency reports to member states showed.

“The (IAEA) Director General (Rafael Grossi) regrets that there has been no progress in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues in this reporting period,” one report said, referring to Iran’s failure to credibly explain the origin of uranium particles found at two undeclared sites.

The reports, sent to IAEA member states ahead of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors next week, also said that after limited progress on re-installing IAEA surveillance cameras in the previous quarter, there had since been none, further raising tensions with Western powers.

Iran and the IAEA announced an agreement in March on re-installing surveillance cameras introduced under a deal with major powers in 2015 but removed at Iran’s behest last year. Only a fraction of the cameras and other monitoring devices the IAEA wanted to set up have been installed.

Adding to the issues likely to cause tension with the West, Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% grew by an estimated 7.5 kg to 121.6 kg, the report said, even though 6.4 kg of it was diluted with uranium enriched to a lower level.

Iran’s production of uranium enriched to up to 60% has slowed to around 3 kg a month from about 9 kg a month previously, a senior diplomat said.

Other diplomats have said the slowdown could be part of so-called “de-escalation” efforts between Iran and the United States also involving Iranian funds frozen abroad and U.S. prisoners held in Iran, though U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has denied the issues are linked.

“Of course, Iran claims (the slowdown in enrichment to up to 60%) as a positive, but more HEU (highly enriched uranium) is still more HEU,” one Western diplomat said.

Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to 60% is now almost three times the roughly 42 kg that by the IAEA’s definition is theoretically enough, if enriched further, to produce a nuclear bomb. Experts add, however, that some uranium would be lost in the process. Iran denies wanting to produce nuclear weapons.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Ed Osmond)