International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director -General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his agency does not know where nearly 900 pounds potentially enriched uranium is located, then Iranian officials said it was removed for protective measures prior to strikes at nuclear facilities in Iran.
The US Army on Saturday carried out mass precision attacks on three important nuclear locations in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Grossi said that Natanz was the first to be hit and “very serious damage” was sustained in one of the centrifughables where enrichment was performed. Isfahan has also suffered damage, he added, although no one has been in the corridors to assess the damage.
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File photo: Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), watches as he addresses the media during their board of directors in Vienna, Austria, September 9, 2024. (Reuters/Leonhard Foeger/File photo)
Maccallum asked Grossi for a statement in which he said earlier that he believed that 900 pounds potentially enriched uranium was brought to an old site near Isfahan.
“I have to be very precise, Martha … we are the IAEA, so we don’t speculate here,” said Grossi. “We have no information about the place of residence of this material.”
He said that the host Iran officials told him that they were taking protective measures, which may or may not move around the material.
File – This satellite photo of Planet Labs PBC shows the Natanz -Nuclear facility in Iran on May 20, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP, File)
“So it’s pretty clear that you ask me about it, that there is a question: where is this?” Said Grossi. “So the way to claim is to have the inspection activity resume as quickly as possible. And I think this would be in favor of everyone.”
The director would not argue with a statement by Vice -President JD Vance in which he said that if Iran has 60% enriched uranium, but not the ability to enrich it up to 90%, they do not have the option to convert the uranium into a nuclear weapon.
“I would not argue there because 60% is not 90%,” said Grossi, but it is more important to find out if the uranium has been moved and where it is. “My obligation is to take into account every gram of uranium that exists in Iran and in another country,” he said, adding that the investigation is not a discriminatory approach to Iran.
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File – This photo released on November 5, 2019 by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows Centrifuge machines in the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility in Central Iran. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File)
Vance said in his statement that the mission was a success if Iran cannot convert the uranium to 90% for a nuclear weapon, and Grossi agreed with that statement, at least in terms of a military approach.
But Grossi’s task is different.
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“My job is to try to see where this material is, because Iran has a duty to report and explain all the material they have, and this will remain my work,” said Grossi.
