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
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