TEHRAN: Iran said on Tuesday it had restarted production of uranium enriched to 60 percent at its Fordow plant, an underground facility that has been restarted since the collapse of its nuclear deal with major powers three years ago. was opened.
The move was part of Iran’s response to the UN nuclear watchdog’s adoption of a condemnation motion last week accusing Western governments of non-cooperation.
“Iran has started producing uranium enriched to 60 percent at the Fordow plant for the first time,” JEE News reported, with the development confirmed by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Aslami.
An atomic bomb requires enriching uranium to 90pc, so 60pc is a significant step towards weapons-grade enrichment.
Move is part of Tehran’s response to adoption
of a condemnation motion by UN nuclear watchdog
Iran has always denied any ambitions to develop an atomic bomb and insists that its nuclear activities are for civilian purposes only.
Under a landmark deal reached in 2015, Iran agreed to dismantle the Fordow plant and limit its uranium enrichment to 3.67 percent, enough for most civilian uses, under restrictions on its nuclear activities. as part of the package, which was intended to prevent it from secretly developing nukes. weapon
In return, major powers agreed to ease sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program.
But the deal began to fall apart in 2018 when then-US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the deal and reimposed economic sanctions.
Protest Cloud Nuclear Talks
The following year, Iran began reneging on its commitments under the deal. He reopened the Fordow plant and began high-level uranium enrichment.
In January 2021, Iran said it was working to enrich uranium at Fardo to 20 percent. Several months later, another Iranian enrichment plant reached 60 percent.
President Joe Biden has expressed a desire for Washington to return to a renegotiated deal, and on-and-off talks have been ongoing since April last year.
Secretary of State Antony Blanken said late last month that he saw little chance of revitalizing the deal, as Iran grapples with nationwide protests following the death in September of Mehsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in moral police custody. Is.
The heavily guarded Fardo plant, 180 kilometers (110 mi) south of Tehran, was built deep underground to protect it from airstrikes or missile attacks by Iran’s enemies.
Arch-enemy Israel has never ruled out military action if it deems it necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability.
Israel is widely suspected of having the region’s sole possession of undeclared nuclear weapons, although it has consistently refused to confirm or deny that it is armed with nuclear weapons.
Implementation of the 2015 deal was overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but UN relations with Iran have deteriorated sharply in recent months. The IAEA’s Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday criticizing Iran’s lack of cooperation.
“We warned that political pressure and resolutions will not change anything and the passage of the resolution will lead to strong reactions,” Islami said. “This is why the production of uranium enriched to 60 percent started on Monday at Fordow.” JEE News said the move in Fardo was part of Iran’s response.
“Also, in another action in response to the resolution, Iran injected (uranium hexafluoride) gas into two IR-2m and IR-4 reactors at the Natanz plant,” it said, referring to an old enrichment facility. .
The UN watchdog is pressing Iran to explain the discovery of traces of nuclear material at three sites it did not declare, a key point that led to the IAEA’s June The previous motion to censure was granted.
In a report seen by JEE News earlier this month, the IAEA said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium as of Oct. 22 was 3,673.7 kilograms, down 267.2 kilograms from the last quarterly report.
This included significant reserves of highly enriched uranium – 20 percent from 386.4 kg and 60 percent from 62.3 kg.
The IAEA complains that its inspectors’ ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities has been hampered by sanctions imposed by Iran.
