Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 21
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Iran will use 50 tons of uranium produced in the country this year (began March 21, 2019), Ali Asghar Zarean, special assistant to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said at the 48th Specialized Exhibition of Nuclear Industry Achievements in Kerman province, Trend reports referring to IRNA.
Zarean noted that a powerful nuclear power plant needs 27 tons of enriched uranium per year.
One of the tasks of the national Atomic Energy Organization is the production of radioisotopes, Zarean said. Thus, 190 hospitals and treatment centers receive radioisotopes every week, the special assistant noted, adding that 63 million euros are spent on this project.
“Radioisotopes are also exported to some countries,” Zarean added.
The special assistant said that there are 1,044 centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran and 5,060 centrifuges at the Natanz facility.
Presentation of three new generation centrifuges will be held in the coming days, Zarean noted.
“If Iran had 100 percent confidence in the negotiating parties under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran wouldn’t have all this now,” Zarean said.
In January 2016, the JCPOA was implemented between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions against Iran in November of the same year. In order to preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal stated in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories having not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
On Sept. 5, Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in the JCPOA, and stated that a further step will be taken in 2 months’ time, should the other signatories not fulfill their commitments.