A senior Iranian nuclear official confirms Irans suspension of 20 percent uranium enrichment, stressing that the country is currently enriching uranium to five-percent purity level, Press TV reports.The only thing we have stopped and suspended and that is voluntarily is the production of 20 percent enriched uranium and thats it, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi told Press TV in an exclusive interview.
The nuclear facilities are functioning; our enrichment is proceeding, its doing its work, its producing the 5 percent enriched uranium and those centrifuges that stopped producing the 20 percent will be producing 5 percent enriched uranium, he said.
He added that Iran would continue its nuclear activities and would increase the production of 5-percent enriched uranium.
Centrifuges that were used for the production of 20 percent, they will be used now for producing 5 percent enriched uranium, the AEOI head explained.
On January 20, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council Russia, China, France, Britain and the US plus Germany started to implement the nuclear deal they had clinched in Geneva last November.
As part of a deal struck between Tehran and the six major world powers on November 24, 2013, Iran on January 20 suspended 20 percent uranium enrichment at Natanz and Fordow nuclear sites in the presence of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.
Iran also started the process to dilute and oxidize its 196-kg stockpile of 20-percent-enriched uranium.
A report by the IAEA confirmed that Iran has stopped 20 percent uranium enrichment by cutting the link feeding cascades enriching uranium at Natanz and Fordow nuclear facilities.
The IAEA also said Iran has given assurances it will not enrich uranium at other locations during the six-month period.
By Press TV
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