Iran plans to start using a new array of advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium, the country’s nuclear chief said on Tuesday, in a move likely to intensify pressure on Europe to save Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.
Ali Akbar Salehi told Iranian state TV that an array of 30 IR-6 centrifuges would be inaugurated in the coming weeks.
Under the terms of its 2015 deal — from which the US withdrew over a year ago — Iran had committed to not using the array until late 2023. Iran has steadily increased its breaches of the nuclear accord as it pushes its European partners to find a way around US sanctions that have kept it from selling oil abroad and crippled the Iranian economy.
Mr Salehi also said Iran was now producing up to 6kg of enriched uranium daily.
“It means we have restored pre-deal” capacity, he said.
In September, Iran inaugurated an array of 20 IR-6 centrifuges that can produce enriched uranium 10 times as fast as the IR-1 that Iran was already using. Iran is currently enriching uranium to about 4.5 per cent. Prior to the nuclear deal, it reached up to only 20 per cent, which is a short technical step away from the weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.
Read the article by Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell in The Australian.