Iran reportedly enriched uranium to 60% purity at Fordow’s underground facility

Iran has reportedly reached 60 percent uranium enrichment at its Fordow enrichment plant, another dangerous step toward the country’s goal of nuclear weapons.

Iran has begun enriching uranium to higher levels of purity at the underground Fordow site, the country’s nuclear chief said on Tuesday.

“We have said that Iran will react seriously to any resolution and political pressure … that is why Iran has started enriching uranium to 60% purity since Monday at the Fordow site,” said Mohammad Eslami, according to Iranian media.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran informed the agency that it had begun enriching uranium to higher levels.

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Weapons require 90% purity, but the level Iran has reached is well above the 20% produced before the 2015 nuclear deal, meaning the country has far exceeded the 3.67 limit % that the agreement had called for.

Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visits the Bushehr nuclear power plant outside Bushehr, Iran, Jan. 13, 2015. The UN nuclear watchdog said Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, that the Iran continues to produce more uranium metal, which can be used in the production of a nuclear bomb, in a move that further complicates the prospect of reviving a landmark 2015 deal with world powers over its nuclear program.
(AP Photo/Office of the Iranian Presidency, Mohammad Berno, file)

Iran has done it elsewhere, but the Fordow site is an underground facility where Iran will likely test its most sensitive nuclear work, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Defense Foundation of the Democracies, on Fox New Digital.

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Ben Taleblu noted that Iran has enriched uranium to 60% elsewhere since April 2021, but the Fordrow development represents a more worrisome step on Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon .

This file photo from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran on November 5, 2019. Negotiations to return the United States to a historic nuclear deal with Iran will resume on Thursday, April 15. , 2021, in Vienna amid signs of progress, but also under the shadow of an attack this week on Iran’s main nuclear facility.
(Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, file)

“The more advanced centrifuges and higher purity of enriched uranium at Fordow is Iran’s way of signaling not only its comfort, but its preference for continued escalation,” said Ben Taleblu. “This is not just about trying to win sanctions relief. This is about training for the breakout and bringing Tehran closer to the bomb through redundancy.”

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday that he could not confirm reports that Iran had enriched uranium, a key component of nuclear weapons material, to 60 percent of purity

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about the launch initiative to support Afghan women during the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tuesday, September 20, 2022.
(David Dee Delgado/Pool Photo via AP)

“As far as Iran is concerned, I cannot confirm any reports about their activities,” Blinken told reporters. “It’s something that we’re watching very carefully and very closely, and what we’ve seen and talked about many, many times before is that while we continue to believe that the best way to resolve the challenges that Iran poses. nuclear program, they are through diplomacy.”

Blinken again mentioned Iran’s efforts to add “foreign issues” to discussions to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which have derailed the talks.

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“We continue to press Iran to take the steps it is taking to strengthen its nuclear program in contravention of the JCPOA itself,” Blinken added.

Reuters contributed to this report.