World Powers Express “Serious Concern” about Iran Nuclear Program

The six major powers, known as P5+1, today delivered a joint proposal to the IAEA Board of Governors' meeting in Vienna to express “serious concern” about Iran’s defiance of the UN demands to suspend nuclear activities with dual civilian and military use. The sponsorship of the proposal by the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany practically guarantees the passage of the proposal at the 35-nation governing board later this week. (Reuters, 12 September)

The P5+1 proposal voices particular concern about Iran’s uranium enrichment program at Fordo, an underground facility near Qom that specializes in the production of enriched uranium at a grade much higher than needed for use as fuel for power nuclear reactors.

Iran maintains that the higher enriched fuel is for use at Tehran research reactor for medical and anti-cancer research purposes. But it is not clear why the country is enriching the 20-percent fuel at volumes many times larger that needed at Tehran’s reactor.