TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran Not to Exceed 60% Nuclear Enrichment . Iran’s atomic chief says the Islamic Republic will not enrich uranium beyond the current 60% purity even if negotiations with the P4+1 group in Vienna fail to produce an agreement, and sanctions imposed by the United States remain in place.
Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami made the remark in an interview with Russia’s Sputnik News Agency.
Iran began the 60% enrichment for the first time in April 2021 after an Israeli sabotage attack on its Natanz nuclear facility.
The Iran Nuclear Deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is in tatters largely because of the U.S unilateral withdrawal from it in May 2018 and its re-imposition of sanctions. In response to the U.S. pullout, Iran rolled back many of its commitments under the JCPOA.
Iran and the P4+1 group namely Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany have held seven rounds of talks this year to find a way to remove sanctions against Tehran and allow the U.S. to return to the agreement.
Negotiators will go back to the Austrian capital on December 27 for an eighth round.
During the interview, Eslami stressed that the Iranian nuclear program aims to meet industrial production needs, as well as the needs of Iranian consumers for certain goods.
“All our nuclear activities are carried out according to the agreements, statutes and regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency”, Eslami stated.
Eslami also said Iran can domestically produce nuclear fuel and will soon start using it at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran.
“Iran can already produce nuclear fuel domestically. We had talks with Rosatom and we hope that as part of our cooperation, based on the plans and contracts we will sign with it, we will be able to do this and start using Iranian fuel in the reactor in Bushehr”, Eslami added.
On the eve of talks on the Iranian nuclear deal, which will resume in Vienna on December 27, Iranian Vice President, and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of the country Mohammad Eslami told RIA Novosti what progress Tehran has made in the development of nuclear energy, how useful the nuclear power plant built by Russia has become, and whether the debt for construction has been paid off, and also assured that Iran’s nuclear facilities are under reliable protection.
On cooperation between Iran and Russia for more nuclear power plant, Eslami said, “The transition to clean energy is a necessity in the modern world since global warming has led to the fact that climate change has endangered human life. Therefore, we need to move towards renewable energy sources. However, what Iran has done with Russia (which has been operating in Iranian Bushehr since 2012), namely the country’s first nuclear power plant, is a huge project. As a result, Iran, at the expense of this nuclear power plant, introduces about 1000 megawatts of electricity into the grid and has already generated about 52 billion kilowatts of electricity to date. The amount of electricity we have produced is equivalent to saving about 80 million barrels of oil.”
He added, “The construction and launch of nuclear power plants is one of the main strategies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation, and we will continue to develop this area.”
