Iran claims enriching uranium to 60% at Fordo plant

IRAN said yesterday it has started uranium enrichment to 60% at the reopened underground facility of Fordo.

The plant was revived three years ago amid the breakdown of its nuclear deal with major global powers.

The move was part of Iran’s response to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s adoption last week of a censure motion drafted by Western governments accusing it of non-cooperation.

“Iran has started producing uranium enriched to 60% at the Fordo plant for the first time,” Iran’s ISNA news agency reported, a development then confirmed by Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran chief Mohammad Eslami.

An atomic bomb requires uranium enriched to 90%, so 60% is a significant step toward weapons-grade enrichment.

Iran has always denied any ambition to develop an atomic bomb, insisting its nuclear activities are for civilian purposes only.

Under a landmark deal struck in 2015, Iran agreed to mothball the Fordo plant and limit its enrichment of uranium to 3.67%, sufficient for most civilian uses, as part of a package of restrictions on its nuclear activities aimed at preventing it from covertly developing a nuclear weapon.

In return, major powers agreed to relax the sanctions they had imposed on Iran’s nuclear program. But the deal began falling apart in 2018 when then U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed crippling economic sanctions. The following year, Iran began stepping away from its commitments under the deal. It reopened the Fordo plant and started enriching uranium to higher levels.

In January 2021, Iran said it was working to enrich uranium to 20% at Fordo. Several months later another Iranian enrichment plant reached 60%.

President Joe Biden has expressed a desire for Washington to return to a revived deal and on-off talks have been underway since April last year.

The heavily protected Fordo plant around 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Tehran was built deep underground in a bid to shield it from air or missile strikes by Iran’s enemies.

Archfoe Israel has never ruled out military action if it deems it necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability.