Inspectors seek to check Iran's uranium stockpile, damaged nuclear sites

The International Atomic Energy Agency has not been able to verify the status of Iran's near weapons-grade uranium stockpile since Israel and the U.S. struck the country’s nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen Wednesday by the Associated Press.

- By STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN

RAFAEL GROSSI of the International Atomic Energy Agency has urged Iran to comply with his agency.

(JOHN LAMPARSKI Getty Images)

The agency warned that it “lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of nuclear material in Iran” at facilities affected by the war and stressed that this issue must be “urgently addressed.”

According to the IAEA's last report in September, Iran maintains a stockpile of 972 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the AP. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon.

Tran long has insisted its program is peaceful, but the IAEA and Western nations say Tehran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003.