Addressing JCPOA status quo, Salehi said that “if we divide the nuclear deal into three technical, economic and legal sections, in the technical sector we have no problem and we have applied good policies in discovering and extraction as well as construction of nuclear power plants and new sites.”
“In political and legal sides, our JCPOA partners do not fulfill their commitments but we can make good reactions in the technical sector,” he said.
Salehi noted that Iran’s cooperation with Europe, Russia and China continues under JCPOA but the time is not ripe to judge about future.
He also informed that the construction of a research center on separation and development of the applications of stable isotopes began at Fordow nuclear facility in Qom on Tuesday.
The research center on separation and development of the applications of stable isotopes will be built next to the vacuum tech center, the first phase of which was inaugurated by President Rouhani in April this year. The research center will be using various methods such as distillation and heat exchange to separate the isotopes. Its first phase is planned to be completed on 8 April 2020, concurrent with the country's National Nuclear Technology Day, and the second phase is scheduled to be completed in mid-May of the same year. The center will be equipped after September 2020.
Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), entitled Iran with the right to enrich uranium at a certain level. After US withdrawal from the deal in May 2018, Trump administration imposed several sanctions against Iran, one of which targeted enriched uranium and heavy water sales of the country.
Since the implementation of this unilateral measure, Iran has stocked all its enriched uranium and in early July, IAEA confirmed that Iran’s stockpile of uranium has exceeded the 300kg limit agreed in the deal. Iran is reducing commitments to the nuclear deal in a step-by-step and transparent manner to create a balance since other parties have so far failed to adhere to their commitments. Tehran says all its measures are reversible as soon as other parties can safeguard its economic interests from damages US unilateral sanctions.
Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Tuesday that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile has reached 370 kilograms.
“We are producing [enriched uranium] with a good capacity and our stockpile is 60 to 70 kilograms above the 300kg [limit] and this amount is growing fast,” he said on the sideline of a ceremony which marked the construction of a research center on separation and development of the applications of stable isotopes at Fordow nuclear facility in Qom.
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