A new facility is fully equipped to build advanced centrifuges, the nuclear chief was quoted Sunday as saying as Tehran prepares to increase its uranium-enrichment capacity if the 2015 nuclear deal collapses following the US exit.
In June, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, had said the facility at the Natanz nuclear plant would be completed within a month.
“(Ayatollah Khamenei) had ordered us to set up and complete an advanced hall for the construction of modern centrifuges. This hall is now fully equipped,” IRNA quoted Salehi as saying.
Salehi’s earlier statement came days after the Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said he had ordered the AEOI to make preparations for increasing uranium enrichment capacity if the nuclear agreement with world powers falls apart.
Salehi said Iran’s plans to build nuclear reactors for ships, while staying within the limits set by its atomic deal with major powers, was “advancing well but would take 10 to 15 years to complete”.
“A third step (in response to the US withdrawal) might be to suspend some of the limitations outlined in the nuclear agreement, for example on the volume and level of enrichment,” Salehi said.
“And the final scenario can be a complete departure from the nuclear accord, which I hope will never happen, with the help of (remaining signatories), because everyone will suffer.”
Tensions between Iran and the West reemerged after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran in May, calling it deeply flawed.
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