Iran boosts uranium enrichment capacity with installation of new advanced centrifuges
Iran continues to increase its uranium purification capabilities. According to an internal report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), quoted by Reuters, Tehran has installed more advanced machinery at the Fordo underground plant, which would allow the Islamic Republic to increase the level of purification of this material more quickly.
According to the agency, which monitors nuclear activities around the world for the United Nations, the Shiite country has installed a cascade of up to 166 IR-6 centrifuges with a special modification that further enhances its enrichment capabilities. In addition, Iran has reportedly informed the IAEA that it is feeding these centrifuges with UF6 (uranium hexafluoride, a precursor gas of this material necessary in the purification process) with a purity of 5%, with the aim of increasing this percentage to 20%.
In recent months, Iran has been installing more and more centrifuges and removing monitoring equipment from the OEIA, increasingly boosting its purification capabilities, to which this new cascade is now being added.
The use of centrifuges is the most efficient method of enriching uranium. Uranium has two isotopes, uranium 235 (U235), which is the fissile element, and uranium 238 (U238), which does not undergo nuclear reactions. The enrichment process increases the percentage of U235 in the mass of uranium, which naturally accounts for only 0.7% of the total.
According to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, Iran is not allowed to enrich this material to more than 3.67% purity. But in recent months, Iran has already managed to reach 60%, well above the usual requirements for civilian nuclear technology, between 4 and 7%, and just one step away from the 90% normally required for nuclear weapons.
Such is the case that Israeli Channel 12 recently reported, citing government sources, that Tel Aviv no longer had Iran's purification technology in its sights, as it was out of control, and that the Hebrew country would instead focus on disrupting other programmes related to access to nuclear weapons, such as missile and rocket development.
Iran's nuclear industry has been at the centre of one of the biggest international crises of this century. Initiated in 2003, the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme triggered strong international sanctions against the Persian country. Tehran claimed at the time that the programme was for civilian purposes, a claim disputed by Western foreign ministries and UN officials.
In 2015, the Obama administration and the then moderate government of Hassan Rouhani put a temporary end to this drama through the Nuclear Deal, which was also signed by Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China. This treaty established strict controls to ensure that Iran's nuclear programme was exclusively for civilian use, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
For three years, all parties complied with the agreement, but in 2018 Donald Trump ordered the unilateral withdrawal and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, demanding concessions on its domestic and foreign policy, under a campaign of "maximum pressure". A few months later, the Shiite country also began gradually breaching several provisions of the agreement, restarting uranium purification.
Joe Biden's arrival in the Oval Office appeared to open the door to a swift Washington return to the deal, and since April 2021 meetings have been taking place in Vienna between Iran and the so-called P4+1 (China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany), with the US indirectly participating. However, the talks soon ran aground and, for the time being, do not seem likely to reach a successful conclusion.
Tehran has reportedly asked Washington for guarantees to avoid a new unilateral abandonment, as well as the removal of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups, but the US has not given in to these demands.
At the end of June, the two sides met in Qatar in an indirect meeting brokered by the European Union in a last-ditch effort to revive the negotiations, which, however, failed to bear fruit. "The prospects for a post-Doha deal are worse than before Doha and will get worse by the day," a US official told Reuters at the time.
"If we want to conclude a deal, decisions are needed now. It is still possible, but the political space to revive the JCPOA may soon shrink," said Josep Borrell after a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian. The Persian diplomacy chief, for his part, stressed that a settlement is still possible, with Tehran ready to resume negotiations. "The US must decide whether it wants a deal or insists on sticking to its unilateral demands," Abdollahian said.
For his part, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken countered, saying Washington had acted "sincerely" and "steadfastly" in seeking a diplomatic solution. "It is Iran that, to date, has not been able to demonstrate a similar commitment," Blinken said, vowing that sanctions against Iran's oil sector would remain in place until Tehran "changes course".
Iran is a major oil producer, but US sanctions have greatly reduced its access to the international market. Now, in the midst of an energy crisis driven by the war in Ukraine and the West's blockade of Russian crude, Tehran could pose as an alternative, but there is still no progress at the negotiating table.
Americas Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.
