By Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.S. and Europe’s top powers on Wednesday expressed alarm at Iran having produced a tiny amount of uranium enriched to 84% purity, very close to weapons grade, and said Iran must explain how it happened.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7% at Fordow, a site dug into a mountain and the second place where it is continuously enriching uranium to up to 60%. Weapons grade is around 90%.
The so-called spike is large but it remains unclear whether it was accidental. It happened in two interconnected cascades, or clusters, of centrifuges that the watchdog recently found Iran had made substantial changes to without notifying it beforehand as it should have.
“With respect to the detected particles of uranium enriched to 83.7 percent, all Board members should be gravely concerned by this alarming development,” a U.S. statement to a quarterly meeting…
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