Iran expands nuclear capacities further: IAEA

VIENNA

Iran is further expanding its nuclear capacities, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said, one week after the agency's board of governors passed a resolution criticising Tehran's lack of cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA informed its members that Tehran told the agency it was installing more cascades at the enrichment facilities in Natanz and Fordow.

A cascade is a series of centrifuges, machines used in the process of enriching uranium. A diplomatic source deemed this development as "moderate."

The motion brought by Britain, France and Germany, but opposed by China and Russia, at the IAEA's 35-nation board last week was the first of its kind since November 2022.

The resolution, which Tehran slammed as "hasty and unwise", came amid an impasse over Iran's escalating nuclear activities and as Western powers fear Tehran may be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies.

Although symbolic in nature at this stage, the censure motion aims to raise diplomatic pressure on Iran, with the option to potentially refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

In the past, similar resolutions have prompted Tehran to retaliate by removing surveillance cameras and other equipment from its nuclear facilities and ratcheting up its uranium enrichment activities.

According to the IAEA, Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state to enrich uranium to the high level of 60 percent, just short of weapons-grade, while it keeps accumulating large uranium stockpiles.

The IAEA has said that Tehran has significantly ramped up its nuclear programme and now has enough material to build several atomic bombs.