"The capacities they have are there ..., a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that," Rafael Grossi said. Despite damage from U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, Iran likely will be able to enrich uranium “in a matter of months,” U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said in an interview with CBS News on Saturday.“The capacities they have are there …, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” Grossi told CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there.”
While noting that his International Atomic Energy Agency does not make military evaluations, Grossi said that “it is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage” following the airstrikes. The Islamic Republic also retains its “industrial and technological capacities,” Grossi emphasized, saying that the regime could start enriching uranium again, “if they so wish.”
Another key question that remains is whether Iran was able to relocate some or all of its estimated 900-pound stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the U.S. military struck three of its nuclear facilities. The uranium in question had been enriched to 60%, a short technical step away from 90% weapons-grade. Grossi told CBS on Saturday: “We don’t know where this material could be." (Read More)
