April 12 – Ali Akbar Salehi, chairman of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), said that the accident at the country’s Natanz nuclear facility on the 11th was caused by “nuclear terrorism” The action resulted, and Tehran claimed to reserve the right to take action against the perpetrators.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of AEOI, said earlier on the 11th that a failure of the transmission grid in Natanz led to an accident. Kamavandi said that the accident caused no casualties or nuclear pollution.
According to the introduction, the facility is located in the desert of Isfahan Province in the center of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, and is monitored by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.
“Iran condemns this despicable act, emphasizing the need for the international community and the IAEA to deal with such nuclear terrorism and reserve the right to take action against the perpetrators,” Salish said.
Asked about what happened, an IAEA spokesman said via email: “We already know the media coverage and will not comment at this stage.”
According to previous reports, Iranian President Rouhani ordered the activation of 164 IR-6 centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facility on the 10th to start the production of enriched uranium. Rouhani said that the IR-6 centrifuge produces enriched uranium 10 times more efficiently than the first generation IR-1. He reiterated the “peaceful” nature of Iran’s nuclear activities.
In July 2015, Iran reached a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany. Under the agreement, Iran promised to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the international community against Iran. The agreement limits Iran to only use IR-1 centrifuges for uranium enrichment activities.
In May 2018, the U.S. government unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement, and then restarted and added a series of sanctions against Iraq. Since May 2019, Iran has gradually suspended the implementation of some provisions of the Iran nuclear agreement, but promised to take measures “reversible”.
