First batch of Iran’s 20% enriched uranium products ready

Jan 5, 2021
Tehran: An official of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced on Tuesday that the country has produced its first product a few hours after restarting the enrichment of uranium up to a purity level of 20 per cent at the Fordow nuclear facility.

“The process of producing 20 per cent enriched uranium took more than 24 hours, but with new technologies this time it has now been reduced to 12 hours,” Xinhua news agency quoted AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi as saying.

The process bena after informing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the spokesman said.

“Obtaining of 20 per cent enrichment is underway in two cascades” at the Fordow facility, he added.

The 20 per cent uranium enrichment process was launched on Monday as part of Iran’s Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions which was approved by Parliament in December 2020, according to Kamalvandi.

He noted that this action was taken in order to protect the rights of the Iranian people.

“We have the ability to enrich uranium above 20 percent (purity) easily and we are considering it,” the spokesman added.

Also on Monday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a Twitter post that resumption of the enrichment process was “totally legal”.

A total of 1,044 IR-1 centrifuges were being used in the process, according to the IAEA.IANS