Iran Nuclear Chief Unveils Plan for Enrichment Activities
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said Tehran has notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of its decision about boosting enrichment activities in compliance with a parliamentary bill.
Asked about Iran’s plan to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, Ali Akbar Salehi said at a televised program on Friday that the IAEA has received a letter from Iran’s envoy to the UN nuclear agency in Vienna about Tehran’s new decisions.
The IAEA inspectors have been asked to come to Iran, as the country is going to break the seals on nuclear equipment under the IAEA’s surveillance in order to replenish the uranium gas capsules, Salehi added.
He also noted that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran is bound to carry out the bills ratified by the Parliament and the orders issued by the administration.
In a statement released on Friday, the IAEA said the Islamic Republic had sent a letter to the agency on December 31 regarding its decision to enrich uranium to up to 20 percent at Fordow facility, near the Iranian city of Qom.
“Iran has informed the Agency that in order to comply with a legal act recently passed by the country’s parliament, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran intends to produce low-enriched uranium (LEU) up to 20 percent at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,” the statement read.
“Iran’s letter to the Agency ... did not say when this enrichment activity would take place,” it added.
The agency stressed that it “has inspectors present in Iran on a 24/7 basis and they have regular access to Fordow.”
Last month, the Iranian parliament approved a law, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, which requires the government to scale back more obligations under the JCPOA.
It also requires the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to produce at least 120 kilograms of 20-percent enriched uranium annually and store it inside the country within two months after the adoption of the law.
The law further urges the AEOI to start the installation, gas injection, enrichment and storage of nuclear materials up to an appropriate enrichment degree within a period of three months using at least 1,000 IR-2m centrifuges, Press TV reported.
Tehran has expressed its readiness to reverse the suspension of its commitments only if the US returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions without any preconditions or if the European co-signatories manage to protect business ties with Iran against Washington’s sanctions as part of their contractual obligations.