Iran has produced 6.5 kg (14 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60%, the government said Tuesday, detailing a move that rattled the country's nuclear talks with world powers by taking the fissile material a step towards a nuclear weapons grade of 90%.
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Government spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted by state media as saying the country also produced 108 kg (240 pounds) of uranium enriched to 20% purity, indicating quicker output than the rate required by the Iranian law that created the process.
Tehran said in April it would begin enriching uranium to 60% purity, a move that would take the uranium much closer to the 90% suitable for a nuclear bomb, after Tehran accused Israel of sabotaging a key nuclear site.
Tuesday's disclosure came as Tehran and Washington hold indirect talks in Vienna to find ways to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers.
Iran's hardline parliament passed a law last year to oblige the government to harden its nuclear stance, partly in response to former President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018.
Trump's withdrawal prompted Iran to steadily overstep the accord's limits on its nuclear program designed to make it harder to develop an atomic bomb – an ambition Tehran denies.
"Under the parliament's law..., the Atomic Energy Organization was supposed to produce 120 kg (265 pounds) of 20% enriched uranium in a year. According to the latest report, we now have produced 108 kg (240 pounds) of 20% uranium in the past five months," Rabiei was quoted as saying.
As for 60% uranium production, "in the short time that has elapsed..., about 6.5 kg (14 pounds) has been produced," Rabiei added.
A quarterly report on Iran's nuclear activities by the UN nuclear watchdog in May said that, as of May 22, Tehran had produced 62.8 kg (140 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 20%, and 2.4 kg (5 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, with the next level down being enriched to between 2% and 5%.
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