TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – The Iranian Natanz nuclear world had a problem with its electric distribution network on Sunday just hours after new advanced centrifuges that started using uranium faster, state TV reported. It was the latest incident to hit one of Tehran’s safest sites amid negotiations over the shattered nuclear deal with world powers.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the civilian nuclear program, told Iranian state television that power had been cut over the construction of workshops and underground enrichment halls.
“The power was cut off here, and we do not know the reason for the interruption,” he said. “The incident is being investigated and we will inform you of the reason.”
The word state television attributed in his reports on Kamalvandi in Farsi can also be used as ‘accident’.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s program, said it was “aware of the media reports” but declined to comment.
Malek Shariati Niasar, a lawmaker who serves as spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s energy committee, wrote on Twitter that the incident was “very suspicious”, expressing concern about possible ‘sabotage and infiltration’. He said lawmakers are also pursuing details of the incident.
Natanz, a facility previously targeted by the Stuxnet computer virus, was largely built underground to resist enemy airstrikes. It was a flashpoint for Western fears about Iran’s nuclear program in 2002, when satellite photos showed Iran building its underground centrifuge facility on the site, about 200 kilometers south of the capital Tehran.
Natanz suffered a mysterious explosion in July in its advanced centrifuge plant, which authorities later described as sabotage.. Iran is now rebuilding the facility deep within a nearby mountain.
Israel, Iran’s local arch-enemy, is suspected of carrying out an attack there as well as launching other attacks, as world powers are now negotiating with Tehran in Vienna over its nuclear deal.
Iran also blames Israel for killing a scientist which began decades before with the country’s military nuclear program. Israel has not claimed any of the attacks, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly described Iran as the biggest threat his country has faced in recent weeks.
Israeli officials could not be immediately reached for comment. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin landed in Israel on Sunday for talks with Netanyahu and Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz.
Natanz today houses the country’s main uranium enrichment facility. In its long underground halls, centrifuges rapidly turn uranium hexafluoride gas to enrich uranium.
On Saturday, Iran announced that it had launched a chain of 164 IR-6 centrifuges at the plant. Officials have also begun testing the IR-9 centrifuge, which they say will enrich uranium 50 times faster than Iran’s first-generation centrifuges, the IR-1. The nuclear deal limited Iran to only IR-1s for enrichment.
Since then-President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Tehran has abandoned all the boundaries of its uranium supply. It now enriches to 20% purity, a technical step away from the 90% level of weaponry. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but fears that Tehran has the capability to carry out a bomb has seen world powers reach an agreement with the Islamic Republic in 2015.
The agreement lifted economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for restricting the program and allowing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to closely monitor its work.
On Tuesday, an Iranian cargo ship said it was serving as a floating base for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Yemen, was hit by an explosion, presumably from a limp mine. Iran blamed Israel for the blast. This attack has intensified a long shadow war in Mideast waterways targeting shipping in the region.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.