Iran building at underground nuclear facility

Context: Inspectors from the UN’s atomic watchdog have confirmed Iran has started building an underground centrifuge assembly plant after its previous one exploded in what Tehran called a sabotage attack over the summer.

• Iran also continues to stockpile greater amounts of low-enriched uranium, but does not appear to possess enough to produce a weapon.
• Natanz hosts the country’s main uranium enrichment facility. Its centrifuges rapidly spin uranium hexafluoride gas to enrich uranium.

Natanz

• In 2002, satellite photos showed Iran building an underground facility at the site, some 200 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.
• Natanz had been targeted by the Stuxnet computer virus previously, which was believed to be a creation of the U.S. and Israel.

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

• Under the provisions of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
• Iran is allowed to produce a certain amount of enriched uranium for non-military purposes.
• In return, Iran was offered economic incentives by the countries involved.
• S. unilaterally pulled out of the deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, however, the other signatories — Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — have been struggling to keep the deal alive.

Not enough uranium

• Iran has been steadily exceeding the deal’s limits on uranium it can stockpile and the purity to which it can enrich uranium
• Still though, Iran has continued to allow IAEA inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities, including Natanz.
• The IAEA’s current assessment states that Iran does not at the moment possess a significant quantity of uranium — defined by the agency as enough to produce a bomb

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iran-building-at-underground-nuclear-facility-confirms-un-atomic-watchdog/article32960502.ece?homepage=true