‘Accident’ at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility after centrifuge activation

‘Accident’ at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility after centrifuge activation

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Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization in Iran, said an “accident” occurred at the Natanz nuclear power plant in Iran on Sunday.

Kamalvandi did not cause any injuries or contamination, adding that the cause of the incident is being investigated, and further information will be released later. On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran had begun injecting uranium hexafluoride gas into advanced IR-6 and IR-5 centrifuges at Natanz.
The reported incident comes less than a month after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had resumed enrichment of the Natanz plant, and less than a year after Israel was blamed by foreign reports for an alleged attack on the facility that allegedly had a significant impact. Iran’s nuclear program. In the alleged attack last year, Iranian reports originally referred to the blast as an ‘incident’ without providing further details.

“The hall for the centrifuge meeting was blown up by the enemy a few months ago, but we have not stopped setting up the hall that repaired the lost hall temporarily,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the AEO, Saturday according to Fars. Salehi did not specify what ‘enemy’ was behind the attack last year.

Salehi added that Iran is moving sensitive facilities at Natanz further underground, hoping that new underground halls will be ready next year.

Israel has worked in the past to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program, including the Stuxnet cyber attack discovered in 2010, which targeted Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and blamed Israel and the US.

The incident also comes as tensions between Israel and Iran escalate amid a number of attacks on Iranian and Israeli naval vessels, with recent reports claiming that Israel has hit dozens of Iranian ships in recent years.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Iranian army, Israel and the United States, blamed an explosion on the Saviz vessel of the Islamic Revolutionary Corps in the Red Sea on Thursday in a statement to Sputnik News.

“The United States undoubtedly has a hand in all efforts to undermine and harm Iran,” the spokesman said, adding that Iran did not accuse any of the Gulf states of being involved in the incident.

The report also comes as Iran meets with European and US officials to discuss a possible return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the nuclear deal signed in 2015 between the Islamic Republic and the world powers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned several times in the past week that Israel will defend itself against Iranian threats, stressing that Israel will work to combat Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

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