Deputy Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi, said that the body would inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the country’s increasing capacities on uranium enrichment.
“A letter that will be handed over to the IAEA says that the process of increasing the capacity to produce UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) and UF4 (uranium tetrafluoride) will start on Tuesday,” Kamalvandi said in an interview with the ISNA news agency.
Kamalvandi reportedly added that Iran had a capacity to accelerate production of centrifuges for the uranium enrichment.
On Monday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the AEOI to immediately prepare for achieving 190,000 SWU within the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 by Iran, the European Union and the P5+1 group of countries — China, Germany, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The deal stipulated the gradual lifting of the anti-Iranian sanctions in exchange for Tehran maintaining the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump announced that his country would exit the Iran nuclear deal. In addition, Trump decided to re-instate the previously lifted sanctions on Iran. The unilateral move has been opposed by other signatories.