Iran breaks through enriched uranium limit set in nuclear deal – state media
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported Monday that the country’s stockpile of 3.67 percent enriched uranium has now passed the 300-kilogram limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal.
Citing what it said was an “informed source,” Fars reported that the stockpile was measured and found to have exceeded the agreed limit laid out in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
On June 17, a spokesperson for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said Iran would breach the limit within 10 days.
Speaking at the Arak heavy water production facility, Behrouz Kamalvandi acknowledged that the country had already quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium and said Tehran would increase uranium enrichment levels “based on the country’s needs.”
That increase, he said, could be to any level, from 3.67%, which is the current limit set by the nuclear deal.
Iran needs 5% enrichment for its nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr and 20% enrichment for a Tehran research reactor, the spokesman said.
When uranium is mined, it typically has about 140 atoms of the unwanted U-238 isotope for every atom of U-235. Refining it to a purity of 3.67%, the level now allowed by the nuclear deal, means removing 114 unwanted atoms of U-238 for every atom of U-235.
Read More: Times of Israel
