The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a confidential report obtained by Reuters, says Iran has installed a second cascade of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at the Natanz site to enrich uranium and will soon add a third.
The first batch is composed of 174 IR-2m machines, according to Reuters. The second cascade is currently in use for enrichment, it says.
“The Agency also verified that installation of the second of the aforementioned three (extra) cascades of IR-2m centrifuges was nearing completion and installation of the third of these cascades had started,” the report says.
Iran said last month it plans to install 1,000 new centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facility within three months and that its scientists had exceeded previous goals for uranium enrichment.
Natanz is Iran’s main nuclear enrichment plant. An explosion at the site last year, which foreign media reports have attributed to Israel or the US, damaged an advanced centrifuge development and assembly plant.
This photo released November 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, shows centrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File)
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