Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi noted that the recent meeting with Iran was not productive.
Speaking on the sidelines of the COP27 meeting in Egypt, Grossi pointed out that nuclear talks with Iran will continue in the coming weeks, according to Reuters reporting on Thursday.
The IAEA wants to continue monitoring Iran’s nuclear programme, while Tehran wants the UN body to scrap its open investigations into the country’s nuclear activities in exchange for reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.
As part of the deal, Iran limited its nuclear programme and allowed the IAEA to monitor it in exchange for the lifting of UN, EU and US economic sanctions. The US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 under President Donald Trump, stressing that Iran was violating the agreement.
“So, they didn’t bring anything new,” Grossi noted and added “we are going to meet again at a technical level in Iran in a couple of weeks.”
As part of efforts to revive the deal, Iran and the US have been negotiating indirectly at meetings in Vienna.
Grossi noted that the IAEA will release its quarterly report on Iran next week and pointed out “we have an opportunity to re-engage to continue our work, but this is going to be happening after by reports’ release.”
Nuclear waste reprocessing
Commenting on recycling of nuclear waste from power plants, Grossi predicted that the practice will not become widespread.
Several countries, including France and the UK, are reprocessing nuclear waste, with the US planning to launch its reprocessing programme as part of efforts to support the industry.
The US lifted a moratorium on reprocessing in 1981, but the industry did not take up the practice due to high costs.
Grossi pointed out that nuclear waste recycling creates security challenges as it “has a proliferation angle” and added that “reprocessing is a very difficult technology that requires a lot of infrastructure.”
He added that the IAEA will do its best to make sure any new efforts are safe, stressing “nobody will be doing reprocessing without the IAEA being involved.” Grossi concluded that any reprocessing in North Korea was an exception.
