Shrouded in uncertainty over whether to resume its 2015 nuclear deal with the United States, Iran has begun to update its uranium enrichment program. The information is from a report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtained on Monday (29).
According to the document, for more than a year, one of three sets of IR-6 centrifuges installed at the Natanz nuclear complex has enriched uranium to a level of up to 60% purity. The IR-6 is the most advanced centrifuge model on the market — under the 2015 agreement, the only model Iran could use for that purpose is the first-generation IR-1.
One of the other two sets installed at Natanz undergoes a process prior to uranium enrichment. And the other was still fed with nuclear material.
Also according to the document, advances in this direction are also taking place in other places besides Natanz. Another set of centrifuges began to enrich uranium to a level of 20% in a nuclear plant embedded in a mountain at Fordow. Natanz and Fordow are about a four- and two-hour drive from the capital Tehran, respectively.
The treaty signed by Iran and the US in 2015 set a series of limits on Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for an end to US sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation. The agreement was broken by Donald Trump’s administration in 2018, to which Iran responded by disobeying previously imposed restrictions one by one.
Last year, shortly after Joe Biden took office, Iran and the US returned to talks about the treaty. Another year of indirect negotiations passed, until last month the European Union intervened to try to make Iran and the US reach a compromise. Iran recently said it would soon respond to American comments on the most advanced version of the treaty.
The new agreement places a limit on the purity of uranium enrichment at 3.67%. This means that Iran would have to go back on much of the enrichment it has been promoting.
There is still the possibility that the installation of advanced machinery in underground locations like Natanz and Fordow will be a signal to any nation that wants to attack them that the deal is invalid, as it is unclear whether air strikes at such locations are effective. .
Western powers fear that Iran is building nuclear bombs. The country denies this intention.
