DUBAI, Iran (AP) — Iran has begun enriching uranium to 60 percent purity at its underground nuclear plant in Fordow, state media reported Tuesday, a move that could upset Western powers pressuring Tehran to cancel its nuclear paints by reviving a 2015 pact.
Iran already enriches uranium to 60% purity elsewhere, well below the 90% or so needed for weapons-grade fabrics, but above the 20% it produced before the 2015 agreement with major powers to limit enrichment to 3. 67%.
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“In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran informed the company that it had begun enriching uranium to 60% purity in the IR-6 centrifuges of the Fordow site complex,” the semi-official ISNA news firm reported.
The IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors on Thursday approved a solution ordering Iran to urgently cooperate with the agency’s investigation into uranium lines discovered at 3 undeclared sites, diplomats said in the closed-door vote.
The semi-official Fars news firm said Tehran had also begun the procedure of “replacing the first-generation centrifuges (IR-1) with complex IR-6 centrifuges” at Fordow, buried in a mountain.
The 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers allows Iran to use first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, but, although the deal fell through after then-President Donald Trump abandoned it in 2018, Tehran installed cascades of more effective complex centrifuges, such as the IR-2m, IR-4 and IR-6.
In June, Reuters reported that Tehran was further expanding its uranium enrichment by preparing to use IR-6 centrifuges, which can be seamlessly transferred between enrichment levels, at the Fordow site.
Iran’s SNN TV channel said Tehran had begun installing new cascades, or clusters, of complex centrifuges at its Natanz and Fordow nuclear sites, adding that it is a “strong response” to the IAEA’s latest resolution.
“Iran has begun the fuel injection procedure in two complex IR-2m and IR-4 centrifuge cascades at the Natanz underground site,” SNN reported.
The IAEA solution is the moment this year that targets Iran for the investigation, which has an impediment to talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal because Iran demanded an end to the investigation.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday rejected the solution as “politically motivated. “Proximity talks between Tehran and US President Joe Biden’s administration to revive the 2015 deal have been stalled since September, and neither side is easy to get more flexibility.
Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini and the sale of drones to Russia have prevented the United States from reviving a nuclear deal, U. S. special envoy for Iran Robert Malley said Monday.
Iran denies promoting drones to Russia for use in war against Ukraine
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