IAEA accuses Iran of increasing uranium enrichment
A confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed that Iran is moving forward with the expansion of uranium enrichment activities at the Natanz underground nuclear site.
The agency’s report said that the third group of advanced centrifuges, IR-6, recently installed at the Natanz facility, is now operational.
He said Tehran informed the agency it plans to add 3 more centrifuges, joining 12 already there, according to Reuters.
The report, addressed to member states, said that one set of centrifuges (IR-4) and six sets of IR-2M, which were not fully installed on August 31, the date of the last visit mentioned in the latest IAEA quarterly report on this problem, have now been fully installed but have not yet been used for enrichment.
The Next Generation of Centrifuges
Diplomats say that IR-6 is Iran’s most advanced and much-efficient centrifuge model than the first generation of IR-1, the only model that the deal allows Iran to use for enrichment.
For more than a year, Iran has been using IR-6 centrifuges to enrich uranium up to 60%, close to weapons-grade purity, at an above-ground plant in Natanz.
Iran has recently expanded its uranium enrichment level by using IRR-6 in other locations.
Last July, a second series of IR-6, at the Fordow site inside Mount Iran, began enriching uranium up to 20%.
Natanz: Facts about Iran’s nuclear nerve
Several centrifuges were built at the facility by a local Iranian company known as TSA that serves as the designer and manufacturer of different generations of centrifuges.
“The facility, 155 miles south of Tehran, was inaugurated in 2000, and only two years later, the first stages of centrifuge installation began in 2002.”
Previous reports indicate that a portion of the underground facility is located at depths of around 8 meters and continues to expand to a depth of over 30 meters.
The facility consists of three underground buildings, two of which are designed to accommodate 50,000 centrifuges and six above-ground buildings. Two of the buildings are 2,500-meter halls used for gas centrifuge assemblies.
“Natanz” includes a feed unit used for uranium enrichment operations, centrifuge hall, production unit and control room.
