Iran plans to install more advanced atomic centrifuges underground: IAEA

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said on December 2, 2020 Iran had begun operating advanced centrifuges at an underground section of its primary nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz. (AFP/File Photo)

• Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers says Tehran can only use first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, which are less efficient

VIENNA: Iran has told the UN nuclear watchdog it plans to install three more cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, the agency told member states on Friday in a report obtained by Reuters.

“Iran informed the Agency that the operator of the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz ‘intends to start installation of three cascades of IR-2m centrifuge machines’ at FEP,” the agency wrote, adding that the three cascades were in addition to one of IR-2m machines already used for enrichment there.

Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers says Tehran can only use first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, which are less efficient, at the underground plant and that those are the only machines Iran can accumulate enriched uranium with.