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Iran enriching uranium at 60% purity, bringing it closer to weapons-grade quality | World News


Iran has started producing uranium enriched to 60% purity at the underground Fordo nuclear plant, according to official media.

The country has enriched to 60% purity at its Natanz nuclear facility, meaning supplies of the radioactive metal held at at least two facilities are now close to 90% weapons-grade purity.

The semi-official IRNA news agency reported: “In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran informed the agency that it had begun enriching uranium to 60% purity. at the Fordo site using the advanced centrifuge IR-6.”

It added that the change at Fordo, about 62 miles south of Tehran, was a response to a resolution by the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation council of governors passed a resolution asking Iran to cooperate with an investigation into traces of uranium found at three undeclared sites.

Iran dismissed the resolution – the second this year to target Iran in an IAEA investigation – as “politically motivated”.

Iran’s nuclear chief, Mohammed Eslami, told Iranian media: “We have said that Iran will respond seriously to any resolution and political pressure… that’s why Iran started start enriching uranium to 60% purity from Monday at the Fordo site.”

It has been almost two years since IAEA officials had full access to Iran’s nuclear facilities and five months since the monitoring equipment was removed.

This has become a major obstacle to negotiations on restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which has been stalled since September.

Iran's Fordo nuclear facility.  Photo: Maxar Technologies/AP
Picture:
Photo: Maxar Technologies/AP

The agreement – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA – eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbing its nuclear program.

But it fell apart after the United States withdrew from Donald Trump’s presidency in 2018.

The US then re-imposed sanctions and Tehran withdrew from part of the deal in response.

Prior to the deal, Iran’s uranium enrichment was at 20% purity. The deal limits it to 3.67%.

Earlier this month, the IAEA said Iran had increased its stockp of highly enriched uranium and in a report its director, Rafael Grossi, said he was “deeply concerned” that Iran had not yet joined the meeting. investigation of its nuclear activities.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said he could not tell if Iran would begin refining uranium to 60% at the Fordo site.

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