IAEA labs do the meticulous, unsung work behind nuclear inspections

A scientist fills liquid nitrogen in a thermal ionisation mass spectrometer (TIMS) in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear material laboratory in Seibersdorf, Austria June 13, 2018. Picture taken June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

VIENNA (Reuters) - While the U.N. atomic watchdog's inspectors travel the globe to check that countries are not secretly developing nuclear weapons, that work hinges on meticulous analysis by two laboratories nestled in the Austrian countryside.

Samples taken in countries including Iran, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is policing the country's nuclear deal with major powers, are sent to the IAEA's labs in Seibersdorf near Vienna. There, state-of-the-art equipment scours them for minute traces of uranium and other chemicals.