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Reuters Reported 400 Kilograms Of Enriched Uranium Missing In Iran

Reuters Reported 400 Kilograms Of Enriched Uranium Missing In Iran

Iran could have moved most of the uranium out of Fordow days before the U.S. attack.

U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities have created a conundrum for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, who will now have to figure out whether enriched uranium stockpiles were buried under rubble or whether Tehran managed to hide them, writes Reuters.

The agency spoke to more than a dozen current and former officials involved in the program to contain Iran's nuclear program. They did not rule out that the Israeli and U.S. bombings may have been the "perfect cover" for Iran to hide its uranium stockpile. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said experts had lost the ability to track Iranian enriched uranium after the strikes. In total, he estimated that Iran could have moved about 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%.

Any attempt by the IAEA to track Iranian enriched uranium will be difficult, states Reuters. Former IAEA chief inspector Olli Heinonen, who led the agency's inspections of nuclear facilities, particularly in Iran, believes that it will be necessary to extract samples from damaged buildings, as well as collect environmental samples. All of this will require a considerable amount of time, he noted. "Some materials may not be available because they are under the rubble or were lost during the bombing," Heinonen explained.

At the same time, there are reasons to believe that Iran may have removed most of the enriched uranium from Fordow days before the attack, Reuters writes. Similar information was previously presented by The Washington Post, citing a senior analyst at the Maxar satellite company. The newspaper noted that two days before the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, satellites recorded on images "unusual activity of trucks and vehicles" in the area of the Fordow facility.

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