New Iran plan focuses on removal of enriched uranium to Kazakhstan

IAEA involved in talks to secure transfer of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile to Kazakhstan.

By World Israel News Staff

Kazakhstan has signaled it is willing to store Iran’s near-weapons-grade uranium stockpile if Washington and Tehran reach a nuclear agreement, according to a Financial Times report citing International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.

The proposal would make Kazakhstan a central player in efforts to resolve one of the most sensitive issues in US-Iran negotiations: what happens to Iran’s uranium enriched to 60%, a level below weapons grade but close enough to be quickly refined further.

Grossi told the Financial Times that Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed openness to receiving the material during a meeting in Astana. The idea would depend on an agreement between the United States and Iran and would likely require international monitoring.

The reported offer comes as President Donald Trump has demanded that Iran give up control of its high-enriched uranium.

Reuters reported Friday that Trump said Iran must agree that uranium buried underground after earlier US strikes be “unearthed” and destroyed in coordination with Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA estimated that before the June attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, Iran had 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

The agency has said that amount, if enriched further, would be enough for about 10 nuclear weapons.

The exact condition and location of the stockpile remain unclear.

The IAEA has not been able to fully verify the fate of the material since the strikes.

Grossi has said the agency believes “a bit more than 200 kg” of the 60% stock is stored at a tunnel complex in Isfahan that appears to have largely survived the attacks, while some was also at Natanz.

Kazakhstan has a long nonproliferation record and already hosts the world’s only IAEA Low Enriched Uranium Bank in Oskemen, at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant.

The IAEA says the site was created as a reserve of low-enriched uranium for countries that need civilian nuclear fuel but do not want to develop enrichment capabilities of their own.

When the IAEA and Kazakhstan signed the fuel-bank agreement in 2015, then-IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said Kazakhstan was “well suited” to host the facility because it is the world’s largest uranium producer and has expertise in peaceful nuclear technology.

Tokayev had already publicly signaled Kazakhstan’s willingness to help.

During a May 11 meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, he said Kazakhstan was ready to contribute “as a gesture of goodwill” to resolving the Iranian nuclear issue if appropriate international agreements were reached and implemented.

He also said Kazakhstan has the infrastructure, expertise and scientific capacity needed for the safe handling of sensitive nuclear materials.

The transfer of Iran’s uranium would be politically and technically complex but not unprecedented.

Reuters reported that Iran previously moved enriched material between sites under IAEA monitoring, and that under the 2015 nuclear deal and a precursor arrangement, some Iranian uranium stocks were diluted, converted into reactor fuel plates or shipped out of the country.

“It requires some precaution but it can be moved,” Grossi told PBS earlier this year when asked about Iran’s 60% material.

Still, Iran has publicly resisted surrendering its stockpile.

Reuters reported last week that Iran’s supreme leader had issued a directive against sending the 60% material abroad, citing two senior Iranian sources. Iranian sources also said Tehran might consider sending part of the stockpile to a third country in exchange for uranium enriched to 5%, while diluting the rest inside Iran.