uranium enrichment Archives

Iran to increase uranium enrichment capacity

by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World

Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran

Tehran : Iran is ready to boost the capacity of its uranium enrichment, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) said.

“Based on a decree by Iran’s Supreme Leader and the emphasis put on this issue by AEOI head, the country is ready to increase its uranium enrichment capacity to 190,000 separative work units (SWUs),” Xinhua quoted Kamalvandi as saying to Press TV.

In July 2018, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the AEOI, said that Iran had set up a factory to manufacture rotors used in advanced centrifuge machines, which was part of plans to elevate the country’s uranium enrichment capacity to 190,000 SWUs.

The factory had the capacity to manufacture around 60 IR-6 centrifuge machines each day, Salehi said.

SWU is the standard measure of the effort required to separate isotopes of uranium during an enrichment process. 1 SWU is equivalent to one kg of separative work.

Earlier, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered the AEOI to prepare for the enrichment of uranium up to a level of 190,000 SWUs.

On Sunday, Kamalvandi said that Iran is also ready to increase the level of its uranium enrichment to 20 per cent of purity.

Under an international nuclear deal in 2015, which put an end to the Iranian controversial nuclear issue, Iran agreed to reduce the purity of its enriched uranium to three per cent.

Iran has drawn up plans to start re-designing the Arak heavy water reactor given the fact that the signatories to the nuclear deal have failed to fulfill their commitments, Kamalvandi also said.

Following the withdrawal of Washington from the Iranian nuclear deal in May last year and subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran, Iran has urged the remaining parties to step up measures to secure the country’s economic interests enshrined by the deal.

Meanwhile, Tehran has also threatened that it may reconsider its approach to the deal, if the signatories fail to guarantee Iran’s benefits from the accord.

—IANS

Iran’s Khamenei orders preparation for uranium enrichment

by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Tehran : Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) to prepare for the enrichment of uranium up to a level of 190,000 SWU (separative work units).

Khamenei issued the order on Monday in a televised speech at the ceremony held at the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum in southern Tehran to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the passing away of Imam Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic, Xinhua reported.

“It seems… that some European governments expect the Iranian nation to both put up with sanctions and give up its nuclear activities,” said Khamenei.

He was referring to the negotiations Iran is holding with European countries on preserving the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), after the US pullout in May.

“I tell those (European) governments that this bad dream will never come true,” Khamenei said.

The Iranian leader said Iran would not tolerate sanctions on one hand and undergo “nuclear austerity” on the other.

He ordered the AEOI to immediately prepare the ground for the uranium enrichment “up to a level of 190,000 SWU for the time being within the framework of the nuclear deal.”

Based on the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran can enrich uranium up to the level of 3.5 per cent, which represents low-enriched uranium.

“Enemies’ measures against Iran show how desperate they are rather than a sign of their power,” Khamenei said.

These measures may slow down “the forward march of Iran, but cannot stop its progress,” he added.

—IANS