IAEA Report on Fordow Dismissed as ‘Incorrect’

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s nuclear chief lamented the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report about the country’s nuclear activities at Fordow nuclear facility, saying the IAEA inspector’s interpretation of their visit to the nuclear plant was “incorrect”.

News ID: ۷۵۲۲۲۰

05 February 2023

Iran’s nuclear chief lamented the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report about the country’s nuclear activities at Fordow nuclear facility, saying the IAEA inspector’s interpretation of their visit to the nuclear plant was “incorrect”.

The UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday accused Iran of making an undeclared change to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium to up to 60% purity at its Fordow plant.

“The agency’s position is regrettable,” Mohammad Eslami, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Thursday, during the opening ceremony of an exhibition on the country’s latest achievements in the field of nuclear industry, ISNA reported.

Eslami explained that the IAEA inspector’s interpretation of their inspection of Fordow was incorrect, but they immediately reported it to the agency.

“We immediately provided the explanation [to the IAEA]… the agency’s inspector found out that they had made a mistake,” Eslami added.

Back in November, Iran sent a letter to the IAEA informing it of a decision to start enriching uranium to the purity level of 60% at its Fordow nuclear facility.

Moreover, Iran has fitted and launched new centrifuges at two empty halls in Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. The halls, under Iran’s commitment to the terms of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, had been vacant but centrifuges have been installed there once again.

Eslami said the exhibition aims to prove that the nature of the country’s nuclear achievements is completely different from what the West claims about non-peaceful objectives of the nuclear work.

He added that Iran intends to generate 20% of the country’s electricity via nuclear energy.

The Iranian nuclear chief also said that the use of nuclear energy in the medical fields, the environment, health and food security is also on the organization’s agenda.