Iran produces first batch of 60% enriched uranium

Iran’s nuclear scientists have managed to produce the country’s first batch of 60-percent enriched uranium, top officials say.

“I am proud to announce that at 00:40 last night … young and pious Iranian scientists were able to obtain a 60% enriched uranium product,” Parliament speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf wrote in a Persian tweet on Friday.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi said access to any level of enrichment is impossible for Iran, adding despite the recent sabotage, enrichment continues at Natanz.

He said the 60-percent enrichment was completed in two days. “Production of 60-percent enriched uranium is currently 9 grams per hour,” Salehi said.

The 60-percent uranium is used to make a variety of radiopharmaceuticals, which is the main purpose of enriching uranium to up to that level.

Salehi said the 20-percent enrichment which was already underway at the facility continues in parallel with the 60-percent enrichment.

“We congratulate the brave people of the Islamic Iran on this success; the will of the Iranian people is miraculous and will thwart any conspiracy,” Qalibaf said.

Speaking on Thursday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Iran could do 90% enrichment as well if it chose to.

The Natanz facility was targeted on Sunday in a sabotage act widely blamed on the Israeli regime.

The developments took place as Iran and the participant parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, informally known as the Iran nuclear deal, are in Vienna to discuss a possible revival of the JCPOA, which has been abandoned and targeted by the US since May 2018.

Iran argues that the US needs to first come back to honoring the JCPOA since it was Washington that initially created the current crisis by its withdrawal and subsequent illegal sanctions on Iran.

Amid the Vienna talks, the European Union imposed so-called human rights sanctions on Iran, prompting the Islamic Republic to announce reciprocal sanctions.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who leads the country’s negotiating team in the Austrian capital, told Press TV on Thursday that the EU sanctions are certainly [meant] to undermine the current negotiations and the JCPOA.

[This is a developing story.]