Iranian Parliament Passes Bill to Increase Enriched Uranium Output by 500kg a month

The Iranian parliament on Sunday passed a double-urgency motion which among other things seeks to increase the monthly output of enriched uranium for various peaceful purposes with different purity levels by at least 500 kg.

As per the 9-artilce bill, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) will be required to produce and store at least 120 kilograms of enriched uranium with 20 percent purity level at the Fordow nuclear facility every year, and to fulfill the country’s peaceful industrial demands with uranium enriched above 20%, Tasnim News reported.

The motion entails uranium enrichment activities with at least 1,000 IR-2M centrifuge machines at Natanz within three months after ratification of the law, and compels the AEOI to launch uranium enrichment as well as research and development activities at the Fordow nuclear site with at least 164 IR-6 centrifuges and increase the number of centrifuge machines to 1,000 by March 2021.

According to the parliamentary bill, the Iranian administration will be required to prevent any foreign access and monitoring beyond the Additional Protocol.

The motion passed seeks “strategic action” for lifting of the sanctions after the failure of the JCPOA’s European parties to fulfill Tehran’s interests and in the wake of assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

The Iranian lawmakers ratified the bill entitled “the strategic measure for the removal of sanctions” on Sunday. As a motion tagged with a "double urgency" status, it was ratified with 232 votes from a total of 246 MPs attending the session.

Chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mojtaba Zonnoor, who had proposed the motion, told Tasnim News that the sanctions against Iran were supposed to be removed under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but they were re-imposed by the US although Iran was fully committed to the deal as several reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency affirmed Tehran’s compliance.