Iran has unveiled its plan to produce uranium metal, the DA’s atomic watchdog confirmed Wednesday, despite Western powers warning Tehran that it would breach its nuclear deal in 2015 as uranium metal can be used to make the heart of an atom bomb.
Iran began breaking its nuclear deal with major powers step by step in 2019 in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the treaty the previous year as Washington regained control. bands on the Islamic Republic.
Iran has accelerated these breaches of treaty restrictions on its atomic activity in recent months, which could lead to efforts to bring the United States back to the treaty under President Joe Biden .
A law was passed in response to the murder of its chief nuclear scientist in November, which Tehran blames the Israeli enemy for, calling for measures including the opening of a uranium metal plant. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency in December that it planned to produce uranium metal fuel for a research reactor.
“Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi briefed IAEA member states today on recent developments in Iran’s R&D activity on uranium metal production as part of the stated fuel goal for the Tehran Research Reactor,” the IAEA said in a statement.
A report on Wednesday, seen by Reuters, and another said that Iran planned to investigate uranium metal using natural uranium before moving on to 20% enriched uranium metal, the extent to which it enriches uranium so far, close to 90% that is the weapon level.
“The Group tested on February 8 3.6 grams of uranium metal at the Iran Fuel Plate Building Center (FPFP) in Esfahan,” an IAEA statement said.
France, Britain and Germany, all parties to the treaty, said last month that they were “deeply concerned” that uranium metal production in Iran did not have a civilian credibility but could have a detrimental military effect. to be on them.
The main goal of the 2015 contract was to extend the time that Iran would have to produce enough fine material for a nuclear bomb to at least a year from about 2-3 months. Iran, however, denies pursuing nuclear weapons and says it wants to use nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.
U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons program that it halted in 2003.