News

President Barack Obama's revelation in September that intelligence agencies had identified a second uranium enrichment site in Iran has raised concern at the IAEA about possible further facilities, according to a report by the Vienna-based agency obtained by Reuters.

It said Iran had told the IAEA that it had begun building the bunkered site near Qom in 2007, but the watchdog had evidence the project began in 2002, paused in 2004 and resumed in 2006.

Iran admitted the site's existence to the IAEA in September.

IAEA inspectors also found that Iran had reduced since August the number of centrifuges enriching uranium at its main Natanz site by 650 to 3,936, while slightly raising the total number of machines installed to 8,692. Western diplomats and analysts said the slowdown was probably caused by technical glitches