Iran "To Produce 120kg of 20% Enriched Uranium Within the Year" Amid US Pressure

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Iran, engaged in a standoff with the United States over the restoration of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), announced that it will produce 120 kg of uranium enriched to 20% within this year.

According to the semi-official Mehr News Agency on the 7th (local time), Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, stated, "We have produced 55 kg of uranium enriched to 20%, and the production will reach 120 kg by the end of the year."

He explained that the operation of high-performance centrifuges has accelerated the uranium enrichment process compared to before.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, had previously announced on the 3rd that 50 kg of uranium enriched to 20% had been produced.

Iran’s repeated public announcements about enriched uranium production are interpreted as an attempt to pressure the United States, which is participating in the JCPOA talks held in Vienna, Austria.

Typically, producing one nuclear weapon requires 25 kg of uranium enriched to 90%, which in turn requires producing 200 to 250 kg of uranium enriched to 20%.

The day before, Abbas Araghchi, Deputy Foreign Minister, told reporters immediately after attending the talks in Vienna, "The United States proposed the release of frozen assets worth 1 billion dollars (about 1.1 trillion won) in exchange for halting uranium enrichment at 20%, but we rejected the offer."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.