BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Iran produces about 10 kilograms of uranium daily, Ali Asghar Zarean, a special assistant to the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said at the 52nd Iranian special exhibition on nuclear achievements held in Mashhad city of Razavi Khorasan province in Iran, Trend reports citing the IRNA.
Before the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran’s uranium production was 7.5 kilograms with enrichment level of below 5 percent daily, Zarean noted.
Referring to the operation of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility, the special assistant said that heavy water is mainly needed for reactors that use uranium fuel, as heavy water eliminates the need for nuclear reactors to produce fuel.
“The Arak Heavy Water Production Plant produced 7 tons of products a year,” Zarean added. “Subsequently, this volume was increased to 16 tons and now the plant will produce about 20 tons of heavy water per year.”
Zarean noted that 55 types of products in demand can be produced from heavy water and the number of these products will be doubled over the next two months.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched 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 JCPOA.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped to the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA. Iran no longer faces any restrictions on its nuclear program.