Tehran, Iran, November 8
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
Iran will be able to resume its nuclear activities at its current level after altering its nuclear facilities according to the requirements of the JCPOA, Iran Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrooz Kamalvandi said.
"By redesigning the Arak reactor, we will fall behind two to three years. But if we decide to return, we will be able to do so in less than two years, that is, we will produce another core for the reactor very quickly because we have already done so once, and have all the blueprints and materials," Kamalvandi said, Fars news agency reported November 8.
"The nuclear agreement was made in a very prime situation... if we had continued the former state for another 10 or 15 years, then there would have been problems. So we had to reach some agreement within a special time span," he noted.
"With the current trend, we can be a producer of fuel in one year. It is correct that we produced 20-percent fuel, but power plant fuel has its specific problems," said Kamalvandi.
"The JCPOA has also created problems for us in the R&D area, but we have the necessary machines to allow us to continue researching. We intentionally introduced the IR8 machines into the game toward the end of the nuclear talks. It created quite a row and the talks were nearly disrupted... it is 24 times more powerful than the IR1 machines. It changed the equations," Kamanlvandi said.
He noted that even if there is no restriction on Iran regarding the number of centrifuges and uranium enrichment, there are three main problems ahead.
"One is that our machines are not yet fully reliable, so making thousands of them will be problematic. The second is the material. And the third is the safety of nuclear power plants. That is, if we do not observe international standards and something bad happens, then we will be held accountable before the whole world," he stated.
According to the JCPOA, reached between Iran and the 5+1 group made up of the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany on July 14, Iran has to limit its nuclear activities and make changes to its program before the six powers lift economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The adoption of the JCPOA was announced on October 18 in a joint statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.