Iran Installs Half Of Planned New Centrifuges At Fordow, IAEA Report
Date
6/29/2024 10:51:06 PM
(MENAFN- AzerNews)
Iran has installed half the advanced uranium-enriching machines
it said earlier this month it would quickly add to its Fordow site
dug into a mountain but has not yet brought them online, the UN
nuclear watchdog said in a report seen by Reuters,
Azernews reports.
Iran informed the International Atomic energy Agency two weeks
ago it would rapidly expand its enrichment capacity at Fordow by
adding eight cascades, or clusters, of IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow
within three to four weeks.
Within two days the IAEA had verified that two of the cascades
had been installed. In a confidential report to member states on
Friday the agency said that number had now doubled.
"The Agency has verified that Iran has installed four of the
aforementioned eight IR-6 cascades in Unit 1 at FFEP (Fordow Fuel
Enrichment Plant)," the report said, adding that the verification
happened on Sunday.
"Iran has not specified to the agency when it would start
feeding any of the cascades in Unit 1 with UF6 or the planned
enrichment level," it added, referring to uranium hexafluoride gas,
the feedstock for centrifuges.
Diplomats say the addition of the IR-6 machines was a response
to a resolution against Iran by the IAEA's 35-nation Board of
Governors on June 5 calling on Tehran to step up cooperation with
the watchdog and reverse its recent barring of inspectors. Iran
tends to bristle at such resolutions.
The United States announced new sanctions targeting Iran's oil
trade on Thursday, saying it was acting in response to "steps (by
Iran) to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no
credible peaceful purpose".
Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the
roughly 90% of weapons grade, at two sites: Fordow and an
above-ground pilot plant at Natanz. It has enough material enriched
to up to 60%, if enriched further, for three nuclear weapons,
according to an IAEA yardstick.
At Fordow, it is currently using the two only operating cascades
of IR-6 centrifuges there to enrich to 60% from 20%.
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