Iran says production of 60% enriched uranium ‘underway’

Iran has begun producing uranium at 60 percent purity and is making nine grams per hour, the head of the Islamic republic's atomic agency said yesterday. "The enrichment of uranium to 60 percent is underway at the Martyr Ahmadi Roshan nuclear facility" in Natanz, Ali Akbar Salehi of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said, quoted by Tasnim news agency. Iran announced this week that it would boost its uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity in response to an attack Sunday on the Natanz nuclear facility that it blamed on arch-foe Israel. The move takes Iran closer to the 90 percent purity level needed for use in a nuclear weapon. Under the 2015 deal known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, Iran had committed to keep enrichment to 3.67 percent.