TEHRAN – Behrooz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said on Thursday that after the implementation of the strategic law on lifting sanctions, Iran has accumulated about 17 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium.
Paying a visit to the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), Kamalvandi said that as a technical organization, the AEOI is obliged to fully implement the legal approvals.
According to “The Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions Act” approved by the Iranian Parliament, Rouhani’s administration was obliged to accelerate Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
Article one of the law orders the AEOI to immediately after the ratification of the act, produce 20%-enriched uranium for peaceful purposes and stockpile at least 120 kilograms of it annually, and fully and promptly meet domestic need for uranium enriched above 20-percent purity level for peaceful purposes.
Iran started enriching uranium up to 20% purity at its Fordow facility on January 4.
Kamalvandi noted the AEOI, as a technical entity, fully enforces the law, and the parliament and the government will decide to suspend the Additional Protocol to the NPT, and the AEOI is fully prepared to do so.
Pointing to installing IR-2m centrifuges, he announced that according to the parliament’s law on the strategic plan for lifting the sanctions on the Natanz nuclear site, Iran will install 1,000 IR2m centrifuge machines within three months.
Regarding other parties’ commitments to the JCPOA and the U.S. return to the accord, officials have underlined that the Iran’s nuclear organization will wait for the decisions of the top Iranian politicians.
“It’s not only the enrichment. We have achieved a lot in the field of radiopharmaceuticals, yellowcake production, and oxygen,” the spokesman remarked.
The senior nuclear official underscored that there are currently 17 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium stockpiles, adding the nuclear industry’s capability is not comparable to previous years.
