Iran mentioned on Tuesday it will start enriching uranium to 60% purity, a transfer that may take the fissile materials a lot nearer to the 90% appropriate for a nuclear bomb, a day after Tehran accused arch-foe Israel of sabotaging a key nuclear website. The disclosure got here quickly earlier than the resumption of talks in Vienna aimed at reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear cope with main powers, an accord Israel fiercely opposed, after former US President Donald Trump deserted it three years in the past.
Announcing 60% enrichment, chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi additionally mentioned Iran would activate 1,000 superior centrifuge machines at Natanz, a nuclear set up hit by an explosion on Sunday that Tehran known as an act of sabotage by Israel.
However, an Iranian official instructed Reuters later that “60% enrichment will be in small quantity” solely.
“From tonight, practical preparations for 60% enrichment will begin in Natanz; 60% uranium is used to make a variety of radiopharmaceuticals,” the semi-official Fars information company quoted Iranian nuclear company spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi as saying.