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Decommissioning of Centrifuges Underway

Decommissioning of Centrifuges Underway
Decommissioning of Centrifuges Underway

Iran has started taking measures to carry out its commitments under the terms of the July 14 nuclear accord with major powers, the nuclear chief announced.

"The measures include decommissioning of uranium enrichment centrifuges," head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, told Japan's Kyodo news agency on Monday.

"We have started the preliminary work," said Salehi, who was on a visit to Japan. "In particular, we are cutting the number of centrifuges, including at the Natanz nuclear facility. However, the full implementation of the agreement will require time."

Russian news agency TASS reported earlier that during his visit to Tokyo, Salehi will hold talks about cooperation on nuclear safety.

During the negotiations that took place in Tehran in October between the foreign ministers of Iran and Japan, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Fumio Kishida, respectively, the two sides agreed to step up collaboration in the fields of nuclear technology and nuclear safety.

The final document adopted after the meeting defined the framework of possible cooperation, in particular, on working out measures in case of incidents at nuclear sites and on assessing facilities under construction on their conformity to standards of quake resistance and nuclear safety.

The document also envisages sending Japanese experts to Iran and developing educational programs.

On July14, P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—the US, Britain, Russia, China and France, plus Germany) and Iran concluded the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Tehran's nuclear program.   

Under the action plan, Iran undertook to reduce the number of its centrifuge machines in operation and limit the stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67% to 300 kilograms for the next 15 years.

Tehran also agreed to modernize the Arak heavy water reactor. In return, sanctions on Iran will be lifted.

The arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council will be in place for five years and the ban for supplying ballistic missile technologies to Iran for eight years.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency will be granted broader access to monitor nuclear facilities in Iran for the next 25 years.

If any article of the agreement is assumed to be violated and the issue cannot be resolved by a dispute settlement panel, the parties could treat the breach as grounds to cease performing their commitments under the JCPOA in whole or in part, and refer the case to the UNSC.

Financialtribune.com