Iran announces activation of hundreds of new centrifuges. The announcement comes just hours after the US announced new sanctions against Iran's petroleum trade.
[www.jpost.com]

Iran is activating "hundreds" of new and advanced IR6 and IR1 centrifuges to enrich uranium, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) announced on Monday. 500 IR6 machines will be activated over the next 10 to 15 days, according to the announcement.

The spokesperson stated that the centrifuges were being activated as part of the “Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect Iranian Nation’s Interest" and reach a minimum enrichment level of 190,000 separative work units (SWU) to meet "the level of [Iran's] needs."

Kamalvandi added that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed of the move.

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In a report from December, the Institute for Science and International Security stressed that while that amount is relatively modest from a commercial vantage point, "such a program from a nuclear weapons vantage is huge for a country like Iran."

"Merely installing one tenth of that capacity of 128,000 SWU per year is sufficient to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for more than one bomb per year. With a sufficient stock of low enriched uranium, Iran could produce enough weapon-grade uranium for over five weapons per year."

That same report stressed that about 650 IR-6 centrifuges would be enough to breakout and produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon in about one month. In June, Iran informed the IAEA that it had begun activating 166 IR-6 centrifuges. The IAEO announced on Monday that it was activating another 500 IR-6 centrifuges, which would bring the total number of such centrifuges activated to at least 666.

In a joint statement on Monday, France, the UK and the US stressed that "Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon" and expressed regret that "despite intense diplomatic efforts, Iran has yet to seize the opportunity to restore full implementation of the JCPOA."

If only we had take the time in the past to come to an agreement of some sort about this.

Steve - weren't you against the agreement initially? Are you now sad to see it go?

I didn't think it would change the ayatollahs' behavior.

From their present behavior, it looks like they never gave up on their nuke project.