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Tehran reported this Tuesday, November 21, that it increased uranium enrichment by 60% at the Fordow underground nuclear power plant. The Iranian authorities, quoted by the state press, indicated that this is a response to the latest resolution approved against him by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A 90% enrichment of that chemical element is required to create an atomic weapon.
New challenge from Iran amid the latest dispute with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Authorities of the Islamic Republic, cited this Tuesday, November 22, by the state press, assured that they began to enrich uranium by 60% at the Fordow underground nuclear power plant, some 32 kilometers northeast of the city of Qom, in an old base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran reported that it began enriching uranium to 60% purity at the Fordow site using advanced IR-6 centrifuges,” the ISNA news agency reported.
The increase is closer to the 90% enrichment needed for that chemical element to create an atomic weapon and well above the 20% it produced before the historic nuclear deal reached in 2015 with six world powers.
In fact, in that pact Tehran committed to an enrichment limit of only 3.67%, something far exceeded after the recent announcement.
The Fars news agency also said that Tehran had started the process of “replacing the first generation (IR-1) centrifuges with the advanced IR-6” at Fordow.
The nuclear pact reached seven years ago allows the Islamic republic to use only first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, but in recent years Tehran has installed cascades of more efficient advanced centrifuges such as the IR-2m, IR-4 and IR-6.
Nonproliferation experts have warned in recent months that the nation now has enough 60% enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least one nuclear bomb.
While Tehran has already increased uranium enrichment to 60% purity at other plants, this move comes in response to the latest demand from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
On Thursday, November 17, the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors approved a resolution ordering Iran to urgently cooperate with the agency’s investigation into traces of uranium found at three undeclared sites.
The Ebrahim Raisi Administration had already rejected the draft resolution a day before, when it assured that the accusations against it are based on false data and warned of a response.
This is the second IAEA ordinance issued this year, which has become an obstacle to talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal as the Raisi government demands an end to the investigation.
The IAEA “seriously concerned” by the increase in Iran’s uranium reserves
It’s been nearly two years since IAEA officials were given full access to monitor Iran’s nuclear sites and five months since the inspection team withdrew.
Earlier this month, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said it believes Tehran has further increased its reserves of highly enriched uranium.
Last week, the IAEA criticized the country for continuing to bar agency officials from accessing or monitoring nuclear sites.
Another report said the agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi, is “seriously concerned” that Iranian authorities have not yet become involved in the investigation into artificial uranium particles found at three undeclared sites on its territory.
This issue has become a key sticking point in talks to renew the commitment signed seven years ago.
The United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, under the Administration of President Donald Trump. The then president reimposed the economic sanctions against the Islamic republic, which began to withdraw from the terms of the signed text.
What at the time was seen as an unprecedented pact to curb the Islamic republic’s atomic program has become a loop of breaches that seem to bury the agreement.
Currently the indirect talks between Tehran and Washington, with the mediation of other powers, are at a standstill.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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