Uranium Stockpiles Nearly Doubled:

Factory to Build New Generation of Centrifuges

Date: 18 July 2018 - 21:42

News ID: ۵۵۲۸۲

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran continues to acquire uranium and is close to finishing a factory where it can build more centrifuges to enrich it, the country's nuclear chief said Wednesday, adding also that uranium stockpiles have nearly doubled in the last few years.
The comments by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, came as Tehran is in talks with major powers on preserving a 2015 deal in the wake of President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the accord.
Salehi said on state television that Iran has imported some 400 tons of so-called yellowcake uranium since the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, bringing its stockpile to between 900 and 950 tons - up from 500 tons.
Since the 2015 deal, Iran has purchased yellowcake from Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as mined its own domestically. The accord allows for that, but limits Iran's enrichment of uranium to 3.67%, enough to use in a nuclear power plant.
The U.S. pulled out of the deal in May, and since then the remaining countries - Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain as well as the European Union - have been negotiating with Tehran to try and save the agreement with economic incentives and guarantees.
Iran has said it will wait to see what the other powers can do, but has signaled it is ready to get its enrichment activities back on track.
Following the U.S. withdrawal, Iran vowed to boost enrichment capacity to put pressure on the remaining signatories to live up to the agreement.
In addition to announcing the continued purchases from Russia and elsewhere, Salehi said Iran is also working on exploration to find additional resources inside the country to meet more uranium needs domestically.
Salehi said Iran has also almost completed a factory aimed at building new generation of centrifuge machines showed in June for the first time. The factory can produce rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day, he said.
The announcement came a month after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said he had ordered agencies to prepare to increase uranium enrichment capacity if the nuclear deal with world powers falls apart after Washington's withdrawal from the pact.
"Instead of building this factory in the next seven or eight years, we built it during the negotiations but did not start it," Salehi, said.
"Of course, the Supreme Leader was completely informed and we gave him the necessary information at the time. And now that he has given the order this factory has started all of its work."
The factory would have the capacity to build rotors for up to 60 IR-6 centrifuges per day, he added.
Last month, Salehi announced that Iran has begun working on infrastructure for building advanced centrifuges at its Natanz facility.
Iran's only nuclear power plant in southern Iranian Bushehr went online in 2011 with help of Russia requires some 27 tons fuel per year.