BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran currently exports its heavy water to 7-8 countries, Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Agency Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said, Trend reports citing IRNA.
The spokesman stressed that Iran continues and upgrades its activities in the area of heavy water production.
Kamalvandi added that if it is necessary, Iran can restore the Arak Heavy Water Reactor within two months. However, the Iranian parliament did not want to restore the Arak Heavy Water Reactor due to the possibility of re-concreting the pipes in the reactor if the sanctions against Iran are lifted.
“In return, the Iranian parliament plans to build a new reactor. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran will submit its plan for the construction of a new reactor to parliament within a month. This reactor will be the same as the previous one,” he said.
The official noted that Iran currently has about 4 tons of uranium enriched below 5 percent. According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, 120 kg of 20-percent uranium must be enriched within the next year.
According to him, as a result of the work done over the past 8-9 days, we can say that this figure will be achieved quickly, even within 8 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 on Iran in November of the same year.
To preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal started 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 that have 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.
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 Sept.5.
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.
On Jan.2020, Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals.