Iran is expanding the capacity of its underground nuclear facility, a U.N. report said Friday, as its leaders move to increase production of a more purified form of enriched uranium in defiance of Western demands for a freeze.
U.N. inspectors who visited the plant near the city of Qom this month saw hundreds of newly installed centrifuges amid steady progress in boosting the capability of the facility, which has come to symbolize international concerns about Iran’s possible pursuit of nuclear weapons.
They also discovered traces of a form of uranium that is closer to the kind needed to make weapons-grade fuel than the Iranians have previously acknowledged making. The report said its inspectors had taken environmental samples and discovered purities up to 27 percent.
Until now, the highest reported level of uranium enrichment by the Iranian program has been 20 percent.
The particles were thought to have resulted from a technical glitch, but officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency were continuing to investigate the matter. The finding is potentially significant because it moves Iran’s uranium enrichment closer to bomb-grade purity, even as world powers are in the midst of negotiations with Iran to go in the opposite direction.
“It’s definitely embarrassing but not nefarious,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington research group that tracks the Iranian nuclear program.
A senior Obama administration official agreed that “the most likely explanation” for the discovery was technical. If the IAEA had found uranium enriched to 30 percent or 60 percent, the official said, it would be greater cause for concern.
Evidence of the plant’s expansion is likely to add to worries about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while enhancing the country’s bargaining position going into a new round of nuclear talks scheduled for June, weapons experts said.
“Iran is dealing itself more cards for the negotiations,” said Joshua Pollack, a government consultant on nuclear issues and a contributor to . “The West is piling on sanctions while they’re adding more (centrifuges) underground. We’ll see who blinks first.”
The IAEA report, a summary of findings from the agency’s inspections inside Iran, documented the jump in the country’s overall production of enriched uranium, suggesting Iran is continuing to recover from a disastrous computer virus two years ago and other technical setbacks.
“The machines seem to be operating better, and overall they’re enriching more efficiently,” Albright said.
Iran contends that it needs the enriched uranium to fuel nuclear power plants, while Western governments suspect Iran’s nuclear activities are a cover for a secret weapons program.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
