DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran has denied reports that it has enriched uranium to 84% purity, which is close to weapons grade.
The Islamic Republic has been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity since April 2021. Three months ago it started enriching to that level at a second site, Fordow, which is dug into a mountain. Weapons grade is around 90%.
“So far, we have not made any attempt to enrich above 60%. The presence of particles above 60% enrichment does not mean production with an enrichment above 60%,” the spokesperson for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Monday, according to the official IRNA News agency.
Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that U.N. nuclear watchdog monitors had last week detected uranium enriched at 84%.
Kamalvandi called the report “slanderous” and said it distorted facts.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel)
