CBRNE & Hazmat

Rafael Grossi, the Argentinian diplomat who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, is expected to visit Tehran this week to press for access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. He says he hopes “to establish . . . direct dialogue with the Iranian government which will be valuable now and in the future.” A 2015 multinational deal with Iran has been shaky since the U.S. withdrew and began imposing economic sanctions in 2018. [node:read-more:link]

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are being granted access to two suspected former nuclear sites in Iran. The country says its about-face, announced 26 August during a visit by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, should resolve a number of issues. [node:read-more:link]

The International Atomic Energy Agency says its inspectors have confirmed that Iran has 2,442.9kg of low-enriched uranium, 12 times as much as permitted under a multinational agreement. Some of the material was discovered by IAEA inspectors at a previously undisclosed site. [node:read-more:link]

Senior advisors to U.S. President Trump reportedly persuaded him last week not to order an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Their meeting followed an International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iran had significantly increased its stockpile of nuclear material. [node:read-more:link]

Senior advisors to U.S. President Trump reportedly persuaded him last week not to order an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Their meeting followed an International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iran had significantly increased its stockpile of nuclear material. [node:read-more:link]

Iran will not accept preconditions on its nuclear program from the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden, saying the U.S. must rejoin a 2015 multinational agreement before any new talks. Biden has said he will rejoin the agreement and and lift sanctions if Tehran returns to “strict compliance” but Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has counted that the U.S. has its own “commitments” to implement. [node:read-more:link]

Britain, France and Germany say they do not accept Iran’s defence of its decision to remove all limits on its production of enriched uranium as provided for in a 2015 pact. The U.S. withdrew from the agreement last year and now the European partners, along with Russia and China, are trying to maintain the restrictions on a program Iran insists is for peaceful use. [node:read-more:link]

Iran is reported to have had “constructive” talks April 6 with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on a response to the possible easing of U.S. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. European intermediaries have started shuttling between Iranian and U.S. officials in Vienna in a bid to restore a 2015 accord which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its program. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. [node:read-more:link]

Iran is reported to have had “constructive” talks April 6 with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on a response to the possible easing of U.S. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. European intermediaries have started shuttling between Iranian and U.S. officials in Vienna in a bid to restore a 2015 accord which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its program. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. [node:read-more:link]

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been advised that Iran has begun installing equipment for producing metallic uranium, another violation of its multinational agreement to constrain its nuclear capabilities. Iran has told the IAEA that the new development is part of its “declared aim to design an improved type of fuel.” Germany, a party to the 2015 agreement which the U.S. eventually abandoned, says the development is “not likely to build trust.” [node:read-more:link]

The symbolic Doomsday Clock remains 100 seconds shy of midnight in what The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Humanity said Jan. 27 is confirmation that the world is still is perilously close to apocalypse. They said that the threats presented by climate change nuclear weapons has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. [node:read-more:link]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ratified legislation which extends the 2010 New START nuclear arms agreement with the U.S. for five years. It had been due to expire Feb. 5. Putin signed off the measure just two days after the Federal Assembly had unanimously approved the extension and a day after he and U.S. President Joe Biden had discussed it. [node:read-more:link]

Renewal of the 2010 New START nuclear arms treaty is an opportunity for the U.S. to press for “verifiable limits” on Russian strategic weapons, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Feb. 3. “Extending the . . . treaty makes the United States, U.S. allies and partners, and the world safer” because “unconstrained nuclear competition would endanger us all.” [node:read-more:link]

President Joe Biden says the U.S. will not lift economic sanctions against Iran until it complies with a multinational nuclear agreement from which his predecessor withdrew in 2018. However, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says negotiations will only resume if the U.S. lifts its sanctions. [node:read-more:link]

Despite warnings by the international community that it was breaching a 2015 multinational agreement, Iran has begun producing uranium metal, one use of which is for weapons manufacturing. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors verified the existence of 3.6 grams at a facility in Isfahan. Iran continues to insist that its aims are peaceful as it continues to argue about economic sanctions with the U.S., which withdrew from the agreement in 2018. [node:read-more:link]