This archive report was first published on 11 November 2019.
On November 11, 2019, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report stating that it had detected natural uranium particles of anthropogenic origin at a location in Iran not declared to the agency.
The particles, which are the product of uranium that has been mined and undergone initial processing but not enriched, were found at a site in the Turquzabad district of Tehran.
According to diplomatic sources, the IAEA had taken samples from the site in the spring and had been posing questions to Iran relating to the site, which Israel has previously alleged to be a secret atomic activity site.
Iran has been slow in providing answers to explain the test results, and the IAEA has emphasized the importance of continued interactions with the agency to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Iran has ramped up uranium enrichment, with its stockpile now reaching the equivalent of 551 kilogrammes, exceeding the 300-kilogramme limit laid down in Iran's 2015 deal with world powers.
Iran is now enriching uranium at its Fordow facility, one of its latest breaches of the 2015 deal, and the rate of production of enriched uranium has gone up substantially to more than 100 kilogrammes a month.
