In a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran announced on Monday that it was doubling the number of advanced centrifuges it operates, reported the AP.
Tehran also claimed to have a prototype centrifuge that runs 50 times faster than those allowed under the agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The announcement came on the 40th anniversary of the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage crisis, when Iranian Islamist students took over the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 hostages for 444 days.
Tehran has gone from producing some 450 grams (1 pound) of low-enriched uranium a day to 5 kilograms (11 pounds) a day, said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, according to the report.
Salehi also announced that Iranian scientists were working on a prototype centrifuge, the IR-9, which operates 50 times faster than the IR-1.
Iran is currently enriching uranium to 4.5 percent, in violation of the accord’s limit of 3.67 percent, the AP noted.
