IAEA report: Iran stepping up uranium enrichment

This handout satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies on Jan 8, 2020 shows an overview of Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, south of the capital Tehran. (SATELLITE IMAGE ©2021 MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES / AFP

VIENNA – Iran is pressing ahead with its rollout of an upgrade to its advanced uranium enrichment program, a report by the UN nuclear watchdog seen by Reuters on Monday showed, even as the West awaits Iran's response on salvaging its 2015 nuclear deal.

The first of three cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-6 centrifuges recently installed at the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz is now enriching, according to the report, the latest underground site at which the advanced machines have come onstream. 

President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran did not seek to develop nuclear weapons but would employ nuclear technology for civilian purposes

Diplomats say the IR-6 is its most advanced model, far more efficient than the first-generation IR-1- the only one the deal lets it enrich with.

For more than a year Iran has been using IR-6 centrifuges to enrich uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to weapons-grade, at an above-ground plant at Natanz.

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Recently it has expanded its enrichment with IR-6 machines at other sites. Last month a second IR-6 cascade at Fordow, a site buried inside a mountain, started enriching to up to 20 percent.

In the confidential report to UN. member states, the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote: "On 28 August 2022, the Agency verified at FEP that Iran was feeding UF6 enriched up to 2 percent U-235 into the IR-6 cascade … for the production of UF6 enriched up to 5 percent U-235."

Of the two other IR-6 cascades installed at the Natanz FEP, one was undergoing passivation with depleted UF6, a process that is carried out before enrichment proper begins, and the other had yet to be fed with any nuclear material, the agency said.

Iran and the United States appear to be inching towards an agreement to revive the 2015 deal, which placed restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for lifting sanctions against Tehran. That deal unraveled after a US withdrawal in 2018.

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After more than a year of indirect talks, Iran has said it will soon respond to the latest US comments on a compromise text submitted by the European Union, which is coordinating the talks.

A deal would involve undoing much of the enrichment work Iran has been doing, and capping its enrichment at 3.67 percent purity.

Its installation of advanced machines at underground sites like Natanz and Fordow, however, could be a signal to any power that might want to attack it if there is no agreement, since it is unclear that airstrikes on those sites would be effective.

Western powers worry that Iran is moving towards the ability to make nuclear bombs. Iran denies any such intention.

On Monday, President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran did not seek to develop nuclear weapons but would employ nuclear technology for civilian purposes.

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"Nuclear industry and nuclear capability are the right of the Islamic Republic and the people of Iran, and we have repeatedly said that nuclear weapons have no place in the doctrine of the Islamic Republic," Raisi told a press conference.

Iran seeks to use nuclear technology in agriculture, oil and gas, medicine and many other civilian sectors, he said.

The Iranian government and its officials, according to Raisi, have repeatedly stated Iran's position on the development of nuclear weapons.

Raisi lambasted Israel for wanting to prevent Iran from having nuclear capability and having access to relevant knowledge.

"But today, this knowledge has become indigenous and cannot be taken away from Iran," he said.  

With Xinhua inputs