FILE PHOTO: The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria May 23, 2021. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo
July 6, 2021
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog of plans to produce uranium metal enriched to up to 20% purity for reactor fuel, the agency said on Tuesday, in a move that is likely to anger Western powers in talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would be a multi-stage process, suggesting it will take time, but Western powers have already condemned Iran’s production of a small quantity of uranium that was not enriched and its plans to produce enriched metal, which can be used to make a nuclear bomb.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by David Goodman)
