International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors last week found uranium in Iran enriched to levels just below what is needed to build a nuclear weapon. Bloomberg writes about this, citing two high-ranking diplomats.
The IAEA is trying to figure out how Iran managed to accumulate 84% enriched uranium, the purest uranium ever found in the country. Its concentration is only 6% below the level required to create a nuclear weapon. Iranian authorities have previously assured the IAEA that they are enriching uranium only up to 60%.
Now, as Bloomberg writes, inspectors will have to find out whether the level of 84% was reached intentionally or if it is an accidental accumulation of a substance in a network of pipes connecting centrifuges in which isotopes are separated.
A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behruz Kamalvandi, called Bloomberg's publication a misrepresentation of facts. “The existence of highly enriched particles is a natural occurrence in each of the enrichment processes,” the official told ISNA in an interview.