HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM PRODUCED FASTER THAN ALLOWED

Iran is producing highly enriched uranium faster than called for by the law under which it started the process of enriching to 20 per cent fissile purity last month, diplomats and a report by the UN nuclear watchdog said Tuesday.

As part of a recent acceleration of its breaches of its 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, Iran has begun refining uranium to 20 per cent at Fordow, a mountain site built in secret where the deal says Iran cannot enrich at all.

Until last month Iran had not enriched beyond 4.5 per cent purity — above the deal's limit of 3.67 per cent but still far below the 20 per cent it achieved before the deal, or the 90 per cent that is weapons-grade. Uranium is considered highly enriched at 20 per cent.

Recent legislation that required Iran to start enriching to 20 per cent stipulated that at least 120 kg of uranium refined to that level be produced each year, which amounts to 10 kg a month.

A second diplomat said Iran was “slightly above” the target of 10 kg a month.