The global trend away from highly enriched uranium (HEU) use is a positive development for nuclear security; however, concerning outliers exist, primarily Iran. In 2021, Iran became the first country in almost two decades to produce HEU and by February 2023, it had amassed 87.5 kilograms of 60% enriched HEU—enough material for three nuclear weapons. Iran also is an outlier in other areas of nuclear security, ranking last or next to last in four of the five main categories that feed into the overall score in the 2023 NTI Index. Iran’s score of 29 puts it in 21st place out of the 22 countries with weapons-usable nuclear materials, ahead of only North Korea.
