Global Insights: Keeping Iran Beneath Israel’s Red Line

Global Insights: Keeping Iran Beneath Israel’s Red Line

The most alarming development cited in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest quarterly report (.pdf) on Iran’s nuclear program is that Tehran is preparing to double the number of high-intensity centrifuges in operation at its Fordow fuel enrichment plant from the current 700 to 1,400.

The situation at Fordow, which has been the focus of the past year’s international nuclear talks with Iran, has created a two-fold nuclear breakout problem. First, having learned how to increase the concentration of enriched uranium to 20 percent, Iran’s nuclear workers can more easily manufacture weapons-grade uranium, which involves further enriching the uranium to a fissile concentration of 90 percent. Second, Iran’s growing stock of 20 percent enriched uranium can be more easily converted to 90 percent highly enriched uranium (HEU) than its stockpiles enriched to the normal 3.5 percent level, which is used by commercial power reactors.

The IAEA report says that four new cascades of 174 centrifuges each have been tested under a vacuum to make sure they are airtight, the last step before they can begin enriching uranium hexafluoride gas. An additional 1,400 centrifuges have also been installed at Fordow, bringing the total to some 2,800, which is probably the maximum for which the facility was designed. Though inactive for now, these additional centrifuges could also be brought online in the coming months.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review