Iran has begun generating uranium enriched to 60% purity at the underground nuclear power plant in Fordo, state media reported on Tuesday, describing it as a reaction to a solution through the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
The increased enrichment, reported through the official IRNA news agency, is seen as an addition to the country’s nuclear program.
Enrichment at 60% purity is a small technical step away from military-grade levels of 90%.
Nonproliferation experts have warned in recent months that Iran now has enough enriched uranium 60 to refuel for at least one nuclear bomb.
Iran is already enriching with 60% purity at its Natanz nuclear facility in central Iran. Fordo is about a hundred kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.
IRNA provided main points on the amount of enriched uranium produced.
On Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Iran took the step in reaction to what he called a solution through the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U. N. ‘s nuclear watchdog. Officials gave no further details.
Earlier this month, the IAEA said it believed Iran had much higher stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. Last week, the company criticized Tehran for proceeding to deny company officials or monitor Iranian nuclear sites.
A separate report said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi was “seriously concerned” that Iran had not yet had interaction in the agency’s investigation into synthetic uranium waste discovered at 3 undeclared sites in the country.
The factor has a key sticking point in talks on a renewed nuclear deal.
It has been about two years since IAEA officials had full access to monitor Iran’s nuclear sites, and five months since the tracking device was withdrawn.
The IAEA’s assessment came as efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, which eased sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, have stalled.
The United States unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in 2018, President Donald Trump.
It reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to begin abandoning the terms of the deal.
The semi-underground enrichment facility of Natanz thousands of centrifuges.
Iran began enriching 60% of this site in 2019.
Natanz, the target of sabotage in 2021, an explosion that hit the new centrifuge installation rooms that Iran has called “nuclear terrorism,” and a shadow war between Tehran and Israel, the main suspect in the sabotage, broke out.