Iran is capable of resuming production of 20% enriched uranium within two days, the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Tuesday.
“If Iran decides, it can have 20% enriched fuel within one to two days,” Fars news agency quoted Kamalvandi as saying.
Enriching uranium up to 20% purity is considered an important intermediate stage on the path to obtaining the 90% pure fissile uranium needed for a bomb.
It should be noted that the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), adopted by six intermediaries (USA, Russia, China, France, the UK, Germany) and Iran in 2015, provides, inter alia, that Tehran will maintain uranium enrichment for 15 years at the level of 3.67%, and reserves of uranium enriched up to this level will not exceed 300 kilograms. Excess quantities of uranium will be sold at the market price and delivered to a foreign buyer in exchange for natural uranium.
The United States unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement in May 2018 and reintroduced sanctions against Iran, including secondary ones, that is, in relation to other countries doing business with Tehran.
After 12 months, Iran also announced the termination of a number of paragraphs of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for the Iranian Nuclear Program - in the part regarding the stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water. Teheran explained the decision by responding to U.S. actions, as well as the inability of members remaining in the JCPOA (Germany, France, Great Britain, China and Russia) to adequately solve the problems that have arisen.