Iran Plans Uranium Enrichment Expansion: IAEA Report (image @IranIntl_En)
Tehran, Iran: Iran is planning to install more than 6,000 extra uranium-enriching centrifuges at its enrichment plants, informed the country to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Tehran said it is planning to bring more of those already in place online, reported Reuters.
The report details what Iran meant when it said it would add thousands of centrifuges in response to a resolution against it that the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed last week at the request of Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, reported the Reuters news agency.
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The move means that Iran can enrich uranium more quickly, potentially increasing the nuclear proliferation risk. While Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons, the West says there is no civil explanation for enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity. It is close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade, which no other country has done without producing a nuclear bomb, says West.
The only enrichment level specified for new centrifuges was 5 percent purity, far from the 60 percent Iran is already producing. The lower purity, particularly at its Fordow site, could be seen as a conciliatory move by Iran as it seeks common ground with European powers before US President-elect Donald Trump‘s return to office, said the report.
Tehran already possesses over 10,000 centrifuges operating at two underground plants at Natanz and Fordow and an above-ground pilot plant at Natanz. The report outlined plans to install 32 more cascades, or clusters, of more than 160 machines each and a massive cascade of up to 1,152 advanced IR-6 machines. The number of cascades Tehran now plans to install hugely outnumbers those that are already installed. The country said it would now bring it online by feeding them with uranium feedstock, which the IAEA verified it had yet to do.
“The agency has determined and shared with Iran the changes required to the intensity of its inspection activities at FFEP (Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant) following the commissioning of the cascades,” said the report, referring to Iran’s plan to bring eight recently installed IR-6 cascades online. Fordow is particularly closely watched because it is dug into a mountain, and Iran is currently enriching to up to 60% there. The only other plant where it is doing that is the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, as per the report.
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Earlier this week, during the quarterly meeting of the IAEA board, Iran offered to cap its stock of uranium enriched to up to 60%, but diplomats said it was conditional on the board not passing a resolution against Iran. Although the IAEA verified Iran was slowing enrichment at that highest level and called it “a concrete step in the right direction,” the board passed the resolution regardless, repeating a call on Iran to improve cooperation with the IAEA.
