Equipo Nizkor - S/2016/249 - Report by the Director General of the IAEA on the status of Iran's nuclear programme in relation to the Joint Plan of Action.

United Nations
Security Council

S/2016/249

Distr.: General
15 March 2016
Original: English

Note by the President of the Security Council

At its 7488th meeting, held on 20 July 2015 in connection with the item entitled "Non-proliferation", the Security Council adopted resolution 2231 (2015).

In paragraph 4 of the resolution, the Security Council requested the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency to provide regular updates to the Council on the Islamic Republic of Iran's implementation of its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and to report at any time any issue of concern directly affecting fulfilment of those commitments.

Accordingly, the President herewith circulates the report of the Director General dated 20 January 2016 (see annex).

Annex

Letter dated 20 January 2016 from the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency addressed to the President of the Security Council

I have the honour to enclose herewith the document submitted to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (see enclosure).

I should be grateful if you would bring the present letter and the enclosed document to the attention of all members of the Security Council.

(Signed) Yukiya Amano

Enclosure

[Original: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish]

Status of Iran's nuclear programme in relation to the Joint Plan of Action |*|

Report by the Director General

1. As foreshadowed in GOV/2014/2, this report provides information on the status of the Islamic Republic of Iran's (Iran's) nuclear programme in relation to the "voluntary measures" that Iran has agreed to undertake as part of the Joint Plan of Action (JPA) agreed between the E3+3 and Iran on 24 November 2013. |1| The JPA took effect on 20 January 2014, initially for a period of six months. |2| On 24 July 2014, the JPA was extended until 24 November 2014, |3| and on 24 November 2014 it was further extended until 30 June 2015. |4| On 30 June 2015, the E3+3 and Iran requested the Agency, on behalf of the E3/EU+3 and Iran, to continue to undertake the necessary nuclear related monitoring and verification activities in Iran under the JPA "until further communication". |5| On 19 January 2016, the E3+3 and Iran, on behalf of the E3/EU+3 and Iran, informed the Agency that, with the Director General's report (GOV/INF/2016/1) confirming Iran's completion of the necessary preparatory steps to start the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the JPA was no longer in effect (see attachment).

2. The Agency confirms that since 20 January 2014, Iran has:

i. not enriched uranium above 5% U-235 at any of its declared facilities;

ii. not operated cascades in an interconnected configuration at any of its declared facilities;

iii. diluted - down to an enrichment level of no more than 5% U-235 -108.4 kg of UF₆ enriched up to 20% U-235; |6|

iv. fed 100 kg of UF6 enriched up to 20% U-235 into the conversion process at the Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant (FPFP) for conversion into uranium oxide;

v. had no process line to reconvert uranium oxides back into UF6 at FPFP;

vi. not made "any further advances" to its activities at the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP), the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) or the Arak reactor (IR-40 Reactor), including the manufacture and testing of fuel for the IR-40 Reactor;

vii. provided an updated Design Information Questionnaire (DIQ) for the IR-40 Reactor and concluded with the Agency a safeguards approach for the reactor |7| (based on the updated DIQ and the safeguards measures agreed on 5 May 2014);

viii. fed 4334 kg of UF6 enriched up to 5% U-235 into the conversion process at the Enriched UO2 Powder Plant (EUPP) for conversion into uranium oxide; |8|

ix. continued its safeguarded enrichment R&D practices at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP), without accumulating enriched uranium;

x. not carried out reprocessing related activities at the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) and the Molybdenum, Iodine and Xenon Radioisotope Production (MIX) Facility or at any of the other facilities to which the Agency has access;

xi. provided information and managed access to the uranium mine and mill at Gchine, |9| to the Saghand Uranium Mine |10| and the Ardakan Uranium Production Plant; |11|

xii. continued to provide daily access to the enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow;

xiii. provided regular managed access to centrifuge assembly workshops, centrifuge rotor production workshops and storage facilities, and provided information thereon; and

xiv. provided, |12| in relation to enhanced monitoring, the following:

plans for nuclear facilities and a description of each building on each nuclear site;
descriptions of the scale of operations being conducted for each location engaged in specified nuclear activities; and
information on uranium mines and mills, and on source material.

3. In addition, the Agency confirms that since 24 July 2014, Iran has:

i. used 119.8 kg of U₃O₈, converted from UF₆ enriched up to 20% U-235, for the manufacture of fuel items for TRR; |13| |14|

ii. used 5.75 kg of U₃O₈, converted from UF₆ enriched up to 20% U-235, for the manufacture of miniature fuel plates for Mo⁹⁹ production; |15| and

iii. diluted about 4118 kg of UF₆ enriched up to 2% U-235 to the level of natural uranium.

Attachment

Vienna, 19 January 2016

Dear Director General,

We refer to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) concluded on 14 July 2015 between China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We also refer to our letter of 30 June 2015. With the report by the Director General (GOV/INF/2016/1) confirming that Iran has completed the necessary preparatory steps to start the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we the undersigned, on behalf of the E3/EU+3 and Iran, hereby inform the IAEA that the Joint Plan of Action (JPoA) is no longer in effect.

We would like to use this opportunity to express our gratitude to you and the staff of the IAEA for their work in connection with the JPoA.

Yours sincerely,

[Signed]
HE Mr Jingye CHENG
Permanent Representative of China [Signed]
Mr Asadollah Eshragh JAHROMI
Chargé d'affaires,
Permanent Representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran

[Signed]
HE Ms Marion PARADAS
Permanent Representative of France

[Signed]
HE Mr Friedrich DÄUBLE
Permanent Representative of Germany

[Signed]
HE Mr Vladimir VORONKOV
Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation

[Signed]
HE Ms Susan LE JEUNE D'ALLEGEERSHECQUE
Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

[Signed]
HE Mr Henry S. ENSHER
Permanent Representative of the United States of America

Notes:

* Circulated to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency under the symbol GOV/INF/2016/3. [Back]

1. The text of the JPA was communicated to the Director General by the High Representative of the European Union (EU), on behalf of the E3+3 (INFCIRC/855), and by the Resident Representative of Iran to the IAEA, on behalf of Iran (INFCIRC/856). [Back]

2. Previous reports on the status of Iran's nuclear programme in relation to the JPA were provided in GOV/INF/2014/1 (20 January 2014), GOV/2014/10, Annex 3 (20 February 2014), GOV/INF/2014/6 (20 March 2014), GOV/INF/2014/10 (17 April 2014), GOV/2014/28, Annex 3 (23 May 2014), GOV/INF/2014/14 (20 June 2014), GOV/INF/2014/16 (20 July 2014), GOV/INF/2014/19 (20 August 2014), GOV/INF/2014/21 (19 September 2014), GOV/INF/2014/23 (20 October 2014), GOV/INF/2014/26 (24 November 2014), GOV/INF/2014/29 (19 December 2014), GOV/2015/15, Annex IV (19 February 2015), GOV/INF/2015/7 (20 March 2015), GOV/INF/2015/8 (20 April 2015), GOV/2015/34, Annex IV (29 May 2015), GOV/INF/2015/12 (1 July 2015), GOV/2015/50, Annex V (27 August 2015), GOV/INF/2015/17 (21 September 2015), GOV/INF/2015/19 (20 October 2015), GOV/2015/65, Annex IV (18 November 2015) and GOV/INF/2015/20 (18 December 2015). [Back]

3. GOV/INF/2014/18, Annex. [Back]

4. GOV/INF/2014/28, Attachment. [Back]

5. GOV/INF/2015/11, Attachment. [Back]

6. For details, see GOV/INF/2014/26, footnote 4. [Back]

7. On 31 August 2014. [Back]

8. On 16 January 2016, the Agency verified that 2676 kg of uranium in the form of UO₂ enriched up to 5% U-235 had been produced since the plant started operation. [Back]

9. On 29 January 2014. [Back]

10. On 6 May 2014. [Back]

11. On 7 May 2014. [Back]

12. As of 20 April 2014: pursuant to Iran's undertaking to provide this information within three months of the JPA taking effect, i.e. 20 January 2014. [Back]

13. The Agency has verified that, since 24 July 2014, an additional 19.4 kg of this U₃O₈ (6.2 kg prior to 24 November 2014 and 13.2 kg since that date), have been generated by and removed from the fuel fabrication process as scrap. Iran reported that this nuclear material had not met the technical specification for fuel fabrication. [Back]

14. Between 16 September 2015 and 7 November 2015, Iran recovered uranium in the form of U₃O₈ from the solid and liquid scrap originating from the conversion and fuel fabrication processes associated with the manufacture of fuel items. The Agency has verified that during this period Iran recovered 44.7 kg of uranium in the form of U₃O₈ suitable for fuel fabrication, of which 41.0 kg has been used for the manufacture of fuel items for TRR. [Back]

15. In a letter dated 28 December 2014, Iran informed the Agency that FPFP was to start the production of miniature fuel plates for the MIX Facility for Mo⁹⁹ production. [Back]

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[Signed] HE Mr Jingye CHENG Permanent Representative of China	[Signed] Mr Asadollah Eshragh JAHROMI Chargé d'affaires, Permanent Representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran
[Signed] HE Ms Marion PARADAS Permanent Representative of France
[Signed] HE Mr Friedrich DÄUBLE Permanent Representative of Germany
[Signed] HE Mr Vladimir VORONKOV Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation
[Signed] HE Ms Susan LE JEUNE D'ALLEGEERSHECQUE Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
[Signed] HE Mr Henry S. ENSHER Permanent Representative of the United States of America

15Mar16

Report by the Director General of the IAEA on the status of Iran's nuclear programme in relation to the Joint Plan of Action