Iran has shifted all the centrifuge production equipment from a nuclear site allegedly targeted by Israel to the underground Natanz facility, according to a Wednesday report.
Citing a statement from International Atomic Energy Agency, Reuters said the move came just six weeks after Tehran had established another site at Isfahan equipped with the machines required to produce centrifuges.
In February, Iran informed the UN nuclear watchdog it had stopped production at the Karaj workshop after the site was allegedly struck last June in an Israeli “sabotage” operation.
Tehran initially refused to allow IAEA inspectors into the site to replace the cameras damaged in the alleged attack, but in December struck an agreement with the watchdog and new cameras were installed.
Weeks later, however, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the agency was informed by Tehran of its intention “to produce centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows at a new location in Isfahan.”
On Thursday, The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it installed cameras and removed seals from machines at the new workshop in Natanz two days earlier. Those machines will be used to make centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows, crucial parts for the devices that spin at very high speeds to enrich uranium gas.
Talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled. There is concern that Iran could be closer to being able to construct an atomic weapon if it chose to pursue one.
The nuclear deal collapsed four years ago when former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and imposed crushing sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Iran has vastly expanded its nuclear work
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday insisted negotiations over the deal “are going ahead properly,” even after repeated comments by American officials that an agreement to restore the accord may not happen.
The nuclear deal saw Iran put advanced centrifuges into storage under the watch of the IAEA, while keeping its enrichment at 3.67% purity and its stockpile at only 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of uranium.
As of Feb. 19, the IAEA says Iran’s stockpile of all enriched uranium was nearly 3,200 kilograms (7,055 pounds). Some has been enriched up to 60% purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Meanwhile, Iran has stopped the IAEA from accessing its surveillance camera footage.
Iran has sharply accelerated its nuclear activities in the years that followed, enriching uranium to levels beyond those in the deal and that the IAEA says are only used by states seeking a weapon.
As the fate of a renewed nuclear deal hangs in the balance, long-sought answers about Iran’s old but undeclared nuclear sites would improve trust and solve a major sticking point in its negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
