A day after Iran bragged about its latest achievements in nuclear technology, including boasting about advanced centrifuges at Natanz, Iran says that an incident occurred at the electricity network linked to the Natanz enrichment facility. The incident has received front-page coverage in Iran’s media. Tehran is both downplaying its potential severity and also revealing it to the world. This messaging could indicate that the Islamic Republic wants to show that everything is under control or to use the incident as leverage.
Iran said on April 10 that President Hassan Rouhani had ordered Iranian experts to “begin injecting gas to a new generation of centrifuges at Natanz enrichment facility. Iran also began the mechanical testing of IR-9 centrifuges and launched an assembly line for its new generation of centrifuges. In Natanz, the order was given to feed gas to 164 all-Iranian IR6 centrifuges, with 10 SWU – separative work units that indicate the amount of separation done by an enrichment process.” This has happened over recent months. Last July, the facility was damaged in a mysterious explosion Iran blamed on sabotage. It said on Saturday that such sabotage was unlikely again.
Regarding Natanz, the article on April 10 noted that last year there was a “terrorist act [and] part of the infrastructure of this center was destroyed.” However, a new center for assembling centrifuges has now been completed. “With this measure, in which all the localization power of the country has been used, from now on, the production of new centrifuge machines will be done without any trouble and there will not be the slightest disturbance in this process,” Iran says.
Now, Fars News said on Sunday that Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s civilian nuclear program, said during an exclusive interview that the country “announced the occurrence of incidents this morning [Sunday] in a part of the electricity network of Shahid Ahmadi Roshan Natanz enrichment facility.” Iran says the incident did not cause any human injuries or pollution. Kamalvandi added that the causes of the accident are under investigation and further information will be announced later.
Iran references the July 2020 incident in its article on the current incident. Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi also said that last night [Saturday] in a televised interview referring to the new generation centrifuge assembly center that was inaugurated yesterday on the 15th national anniversary of nuclear technology:
if(window.location.pathname.indexOf(“656089”) != -1){console.log(“hedva connatix”);document.getElementsByClassName(“divConnatix”)[0].style.display =”none”;}“The enemy blew up our centrifuge assembly hall a few months ago [in July 2020]… but that did not stop [our progress because another hall is being used under] makeshift conditions. Now we are working day and night in the heart of the mountain and near Natanz, and we hope that the desired sections in the heart of the mountain will be ready next year and we will move these facilities there.”
Iran is pushing forward with “gasification of a new generation [of] centrifuge machines that was carried out in Natanz Enrichment Complex. IR-9 centrifuge mechanical tests were started and [a] new generation centrifuge assembly center was started,” reports said on Sunday.
Iranian media is being forthright about the current incident and downplaying it.
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