The U.S. has significantly stepped up spying operations on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor over the past two months, driven by heightened concerns about the security of weapons-grade plutonium after Tehran unexpectedly discharged fuel rods from the facility in October, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, December 2. The increased U.S. surveillance of Bushehr, on Iran’s southwestern coast, has been conducted in part with the Pentagon’s fleet of drones operating over the Persian Gulf. U.S. officials stepped up surveillance after becoming alarmed over activities at Bushehr, especially the removal of fuel rods from the plant in October, just two months after it became fully operational. Nuclear experts said they are more concerned about safety at the reactor, for now, than about the prospect that Tehran will use the facility to develop atomic weapons.