TEHRAN, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced Sunday that it started the extraction of 20-percent enriched uranium from the Fordow enrichment facility in central Iran, state TV reported.
On Saturday, "20-percent enriched uranium was extracted from the new chain of centrifuges which were installed and fed with gas in Fordow two weeks ago," Behrouz Kamalvandi told IRIB TV in an interview.
"Iran's yesterday extraction of 20-percent product from this chain was the final technical part of the previously-announced action, about which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been informed earlier and was recently verified," he said.
The spokesman noted that the AEOI action was carried out in line with the implementation of its legal duties in launching and feeding uranium gas to 1,000 IR-6 centrifuges, according to the report.
This is the first time that the IR-6 centrifuges, Iran's third-generation, and most advanced uranium enrichment facilities, are put to use.
Iran signed a nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. Iran is obliged under the 2015 nuclear agreement to limit its uranium enrichment to 3.67 percent purity.
However, Iran started gradually reducing its commitments to the agreement one year after former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally took his country out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
Iran is already enriching to up to 60 percent, well above the up to 20 percent it produced before the 2015 deal. ■
