• Sabotage May Weaken Tehran’s Position in Indirect Talks with U.S.

    With the U.S. and Iran planning their second round of indirect nuclear talks in Vienna this week, some analysts say Sunday’s sabotage of Iran’s Natanz nuclear site has weakened the Iranian position, while others contend it all depends on Iran’s response.

  • The Natanz Blackout: Can the Iran Deal Talks Still Succeed?

    Washington and Tehran seem determined to revive the deal that freezes Iran’s nuclear program, despite domestic criticism on both sides and the apparent sabotage of an Iranian facility.

  • Iran Blames Israel for Suspected Sabotage at Nuclear Facility, Vows Revenge

    Iran has vowed to take “revenge” for an alleged act of sabotage at its main Natanz nuclear site that it blames on its archenemy Israel, an incident that could overshadow diplomatic efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

  • Working Toward a More Secure World

    Neutron resonance transmission analysis (NRTA), which is used for identifying specific kinds of special nuclear materials. Elements come in different forms, or isotopes, and one way to differentiate among isotopes is to bombard them with neutrons. A reliable method for pinning down the nature of nuclear materials is crucial in nuclear security, where verification of weapons treaties may depend on establishing if a warhead slated for elimination is real or fake. The same kind of technology is useful for determining the enrichment status of nuclear fuel, or for revealing the presence of concealed radioactive material.

  • Iran Begins Uranium Enrichment with More Advanced Centrifuges

    Iran has begun enriching uranium at its underground Natanz plant using a cascade of advanced centrifuges, the latest breach of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The use of the advanced centrifuges is the latest violation of the nuclear accord, which only allows slower first-generation IR-1 centrifuges for enrichment.

  • Explainable AI: A Must for Nuclear Nonproliferation, National Security

    As it is with raw human intelligence, so it is with artificial intelligence (AI). We may not know exactly what’s going on inside that elaborate black box built by humans, but its decisions can be so accurate that it earns our trust, if not our comprehension. But the need for understanding escalates when the stakes are higher. For national security concerns, it’s not good enough to know that a system works; scientists demand to know how and why. That’s the foundation for a field of study known as “explainable AI.”

  • Iran Confirms End to Snap Inspections as U.S. Seeks to “Lengthen, Strengthen” Nuclear Deal

    Iranian state television has confirmed that the country has ended its implementation of the Additional Protocol, which allows for so-called snap inspections of nuclear-related sites, signaling the further disintegration of atomic safeguards in place since a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

  • IAEA Chief: Iran to Give “Less Access” to UN Nuclear Inspectors

    The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency said after talks in Iran on February 21 over Tehran’s threat to curb international inspections that the two sides reached an agreement but that Iran will suspend a key document on cooperation and offer “less access” to inspectors.

  • U.S. Says It's Ready to Meet, but Iran Says Sanctions Should Be Dropped First

    Iran says it will “immediately reverse” its actions that contradict a 2015 nuclear agreement once U.S. sanctions are lifted after Washington said it was ready to revive the deal that former U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 before reimposing the crippling penalties on Tehran.

  • Iran Increasing Enrichment Capacity at Underground Natanz Facility

    According to a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has begun enriching uranium with a second cascade of IR-2 centrifuges. The 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, permits Iran to enrich uranium with first-generation IR-1 centrifuges. However, last December Iran told the IAEA that it had begun enriching uranium with the more efficient IR-2 centrifuges and that it would install three more IR-2 cascades.

  • Iran Enriched “17 Kilograms” of 20 Percent Enriched Uranium, Exceeding Nuclear Pact’s Limits

    Iran says it has produced 17 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium within a month, as Iranian officials continue to dismiss international calls for Tehran to return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement. About 250 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium are needed to convert it into 15-25 kilograms of the 90 percent-enriched needed for a Hiroshima-size nuclear weapon.

  • Russia to Exit Open Skies Treaty after U.S. Pullout

    Russia says it is beginning the procedure to withdraw from the international Open Skies Treaty after the United States last year left the accord, which allows unarmed aerial surveillance flights over dozens of participating states. The United States formally withdrew on November 22 from the arms-control and verification agreement.

  • Israel Warns Iran About Uranium Enrichment Announcement

    Israeli officials said Monday that they will not allow Iran to produce a nuclear weapon.  Israel was responding to Iran’s announcement that its scientists have resumed enriching uranium to 20 percent purity.  The exchange is increasing tensions just two weeks before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office.

  • Iran Vows 20 Percent Uranium Enrichment “As Soon As Possible”

    Iran said on January 2 that it plans to enrich uranium up to 20 percent purity at its underground Fordow nuclear facility “as soon as possible,” a level far above limits set by an international nuclear accord. Iran’s public announcement come a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Tehran had revealed its intention in a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog.

  • Remote-Control Killing: Iran Says Top Nuclear Scientist Assassinated by Machine Gun Guided Via Satellite

    A machine gun equipped with a “satellite-controlled smart system” was used to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist, a senior official with the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has said. Officials have blamed Israel for the brazen, daytime attack on 27 November in Absard, some sixty kilometers from the capital, Tehran, though it didn’t offer any evidence for the claim.