The Development Of Iran's Uranium Stockpile

After the limit of a 300 kg Iranian uranium stockpile agreed upon in the JCPOA deal was abandoned in 2018 when the first Trump administration withdrew from the agreement, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported significant growth in Iran's stockpiles of nuclear material. As of the latest report dated June 13, Iran had almost 10,000 kilograms of enriched uranium, of which more than 400 kilograms were of the crucial 60-percent variety. For the building of an atomic bomb, this would still have to be enriched to 90 percent.

Tehran has maintained that its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes and according to recent U.S. intelligence information, there is no known intent by the country to weaponize at this point. Experts in the arms control sphere have added that Israel revealed no concrete sources for their claim that its June 12 strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities have pre-empted the construction of an atomic bomb. The level of enriched uranium in Iran catalogued by the IAEA had at that point already months ago reached a so-called near-zero point, a point where the country could theoretically construct a crude bomb in a matter of weeks or months. On June 22, the United States also struck major Iranian nuclear facilities, after which the whereabouts of Iran's stockpile have been unknown.

The IAEA has repeatedly criticized Iran's lack of explanations for nuclear material previously detected at undeclared sites, lack of access to nuclear facilities and lack of information on new centrifuges. While the agency states that it has “no credible indications of an ongoing, undeclared structured nuclear programme”, it also said that the fact that Iran was "the only non-nuclear-weapon state in the world that is producing and accumulating uranium enriched to 60 percent remains a matter of serious concern".