Iran: 60% Enriched Uranium Acceleration Confirmed, West Blames

Iran is ramping up production of 60% enriched uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed on Tuesday that the country has started production at the Fordow underground fuel plant, in addition to its production started at Natanz since April 2021. The IAEA “will inform Iran of its intention to increase the frequency and intensity of its verification activities.”

“Production of 60 percent uranium at Fordow started on Monday,” head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami told Isna earlier. “We said that political pressure does not change anything and that the adoption of a resolution (at the IAEA) will cause a serious reaction from Iran, he added.

The UK, France and Germany criticized the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program in a joint statement, “denouncing Iran’s latest measures, confirmed by the IAEA, to further expand its nuclear program.” They note that by increasing its production capacity, Tehran “has taken important new steps that have stripped” the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement of “its content.” On Tuesday, a White House spokesman expressed US “deep concern” about the “progress of the nuclear program”, in particular Iran’s.

Iran is approaching the atomic bomb

The threshold of enrichment is more symbolic than anything else. “It is much faster to enrich uranium from 20 to 60% than to enrich it from 1 to 20%,” said Yves Marignac, a Parisian nuclear expert, in April 2021. And going from 60% to 90% takes even less time than going from 20% to 60%. » Uranium enriched to about 20% is used in nuclear medicine and medical imaging; at 90% you can create an atomic bomb, a goal that the Islamic Republic has always denied.

That 60% threshold is well above the 3.67% threshold set by a 2015 deal between Tehran and the major powers aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Under this agreement, Iran agreed to freeze its enrichment activities at Fordow. However, the site was brought back online in 2019 and has recently been redesigned to improve efficiency.

The 2015 Pact (JCPOA) offered Iran an exemption from international sanctions in exchange for assurances that Tehran would not acquire nuclear weapons. However, after the US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and the restoration of US sanctions that are choking its economy, Tehran has gradually freed itself from its obligations. Thus, in January 2021, Iran initiated a process designed to produce uranium enriched up to 20% at the Fordow plant.