IAEA: Iran installs more centrifuges at Fordow plant

Shafaq News/ The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that Iran has accelerated the installation of two additional sets of centrifuges for uranium enrichment at its Fordow site.

Diplomats said Iran was responding to last week's International Atomic Energy Agency board resolution against it by expanding its uranium enrichment capacity at its two underground enrichment sites at Fordow and Natanz, but the escalation is not as big as many had feared. Reuters reported on Wednesday.

According to a confidential report sent by the International Atomic Energy Agency to member states on Thursday, "On June 9th and 10th, Iran informed the agency that it would install eight sets, each containing 174 IR-6 centrifuges, over the next three to four weeks in Unit 1 of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant."

Reuters added, "While Iran had long planned to install eight cascades of centrifuges at Fordow's Unit 1 it had only prepared the necessary infrastructure for the cascades rather than installing the machines themselves. Before these new cascades, Fordow had eight operating in total."

At its underground enrichment plant at Natanz, Iran fleshed out a plan to install an unspecified number of extra centrifuges, informing the IAEA that it would set up 18 cascades of advanced IR-2m machines.

"Iran provided no information regarding when this activity would take place," the report said.