Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reviews Iran’s new nuclear achievements during Iran’s National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran, Iran, April 10, 2021.
Office of the Iranian Presidency RT
Iran said on Saturday that it has begun mechanical testing on the newest advanced nuclear centrifuge, even as the five remaining world powers remaining in a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran try to bring the United States back on track.
Iran’s IR-9 centrifuge, when operational, would have the ability to separate uranium isotopes faster than current centrifuges used, thus enriching uranium at a faster rate. The announcement broadcast on state television came on the 15th “Nuclear Day” of Iran.
The IR-9 output is 50 times faster than Iran’s first IR-1 centrifuge. The country also announced that it launched a chain of 164 IR-6 centrifuges on Saturday and is also developing IR-8 centrifuges.
Since January, Iran has begun enriching uranium with a purity of up to 20%, a technical step away from the level of weapons, although Iran’s leadership insists the country has no desire to develop a nuclear weapon.
Former US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, accusing Iran of failing to abide by the deal, opting for what he called a campaign of maximum pressure from intensified US sanctions and other harsh actions.
Iran has responded by stepping up uranium enrichment and building centrifuges, clearly violating the agreement, while insisting that its nuclear development is for civilian purposes, not military.
Israel claims that Iran still maintains its ambition to develop nuclear weapons, pointing to Tehran’s ballistic missile program and research into other technologies.
Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program has peaceful purposes.
Iran’s 20% enriched uranium deposit has reached 55 kilograms (£ 121), bringing its nuclear program closer to arms quality enrichment levels. The amount of material was 17 kilograms in January.
Iran has installed 1,000 IR2 spinning machines and a cascade of 164 IR4 machines. Both are in operation and have more speed than IR1 cars.
Since the end of February, Iran has ceased to comply with a confidential agreement with the UN nuclear surveillance body, concluded under the 2015 nuclear reference agreement. The International Atomic Energy Agency has additional protocols with several countries that it monitors.
According to the protocol with Iran, the IAEA “collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said at the time that it had placed 2,000 seals against the handling of nuclear materials and equipment. . “
However, the Iranian parliament passed a bill in December calling on the government to limit its cooperation with the IAEA and push its nuclear program beyond the limits of the 2015 nuclear deal. After the bill became law, Iran then began to enrich uranium with up to 20% purity and spin advanced centrifuges – both restricted agree.
Iran argues that the US’s departure from the nuclear deal was the first breach of the agreement by any of the counties, and therefore the US must make the first move and remove sanctions before Iran returns to compliance.
President Joe Biden took office, saying that a return to the agreement and the recovery of Iran’s nuclear program under international restrictions is a priority. But Iran and the United States have disagreed on Iran’s demands that sanctions be lifted first. This stalemate has threatened to become an early foreign policy obstacle for the new US president.
Discussions in Vienna aimed at bringing the US back to the agreement with Iran broke out on Friday with no immediate signs of progress on issues that divide Washington and Tehran.
However, delegations spoke of a constructive atmosphere and decided to continue the discussions.