FNA - Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi announced that the volume of the country's 4.5% enriched uranium stockpile is now close to 370kg.

"At present, the amount of our 4.5% enriched uranium stands at nearly 60kg to 70kg above the 300kg (limit enshrined in the 2015 nuclear deal)," Kamalvandi said on Tuesday.

He had noted in July that Iran's current enrichment level stands at 4.5%, "and we are not to surpass 4.5% enrichment and stay at this degree for now".

Elaborating on the technical and political logic, Kamalvandi said Iran at present needs 4.5% enriched uranium, while it already has a sufficient stockpile of 20% enriched uranium to fuel the Tehran research reactor for the next few years, "but if the Tehran research reactor comes in need and this fuel (20%) is not delivered to Iran (in the future), we can produce it ourselves".

Elsewhere, AEOI Chief Ali Akbar Salehi also said on Tuesday that construction of the Bushehr 2 and Bushehr 3 nuclear power plants is progressing well and even ahead of the schedule, adding that construction of the power plants will kick off with concrete casting in October.

Salehi had announced in July that his country had started construction of two new nuclear power plants in the Southern city of Bushehr.

"Everything is moving ahead in an excellent manner. I was in Bushehr two or three days ago and the Bushehr 2 and Bushehr 3 power plants are being constructed," Salehi told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in Tehran.

He added that infrastructures of the power plants had been built, noting that thousands of tons of concrete and cement had been used and two to three months later a larger amount of concrete would be injected to the infrastructures of the two new power plants too.

Iran's first Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr started operating in Iran in 2011 and reached full capacity the following year.

The project for Bushehr-2 was presented by Russian nuclear experts in Tehran in September, 2014.

In February 2017, Salehi said two new nuclear reactors were scheduled to be built in the city of Bushehr.

Tehran is planning to begin the construction of two more nuclear reactors in the Southern Iranian city of Bushehr in the coming months, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said at the time.

"In the construction of nuclear power plants…we hopefully, within the next few months, will be witnessing the launching of new reactors," Salehi said.

He added that Tehran and Moscow had signed agreements for the construction of two reactors in Bushehr.