Implementation Day is a milestone in the effort to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful in nature by blocking potential pathways to a bomb. As a result of years of negotiations and months of preparations for the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran’s breakout time has increased from just two to three months before the agreement to at least one year.
Since Adoption Day in October, Iran has shipped 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium out of the country and has removed and placed in monitored storage two-thirds of its centrifuges and associated infrastructure. The core of Iran’s Arak Heavy Water Research Reactor was removed and filled with concrete, eliminating Iran’s potential source of weapons-grade plutonium. To block possible covert pathways, Iran has allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unprecedented access to its nuclear facilities and supply chain. And for the first time, the IAEA will be using modern safeguards technologies in its monitoring and verification efforts in Iran. Earlier today, the IAEA reported that Iran has completed all the necessary nuclear steps required to reach Implementation Day under the JCPOA.
As we continue to implement the JCPOA in the coming years, the Department of Energy’s vast expertise in the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear safeguards and security, and nuclear materials will play a critical role in helping to ensure that Iran is meeting its key nuclear commitments. To date, experts at DOE headquarters, seven national laboratories and two DOE nuclear sites have been actively involved in reaching and now implementing the JCPOA. These experts will continue to play a critical role as the Department leads the U.S. effort to work with our P5+1 and European Union partners and Iran on the redesign and reconstruction of the Arak reactor, and also in our continued effort to support the IAEA’s monitoring and verification activities worldwide.
Based on hard science and analysis, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action enhances our global security and provides verification to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.
