Report shows progress on Iran’s nuclear program

New York Times : The International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report showing that Iran has made progress across the board in its nuclear production program. Over three months, the country’s low-enriched uranium stockpile grew 8% to 10 tons. The focus is the enrichment of uranium-235, a reactor fuel that can be further enriched for use in weapons. And Iran is slowly raising the level of enrichment to 20% purity and converting the uranium to metal oxide form, which will purportedly be used as reactor fuel. The number of centrifuges used for enrichment grew by 1395 since February, for a total of 14 244. Only 689 of those centrifuges are of a new advanced form, and none appear to be in use yet. However, the country is also making progress on a heavy-water reactor at its Arak facility; the reactor can be used for producing plutonium that would also be useful in weapons. The report comes a month before Iran’s presidential election and during a hiatus in diplomacy after previous multiparty talks fell apart. US and Israeli officials say they would still have several months in which to respond if Iran began directly working on constructing a weapon. Talks are expected to begin again after the election, and levels of fuel are still below Israel’s declared limit for military action.