TEHRAN, Iran – The Iranian Natanz nuclear world experienced a problem with its electrical distribution network on Sunday, hours after new advanced centrifuges were launched that enrich 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.
State TV quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s civilian nuclear program, announcing the incident.
Kamalvandi said the incident fortunately did not cause any human damage or pollution, a TV anchor woman said. “The cause of the incident is being investigated.”
The word state television attributed in his report to Kamalvandi in Farsi can also be used for ‘accident’.
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The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the civilian arm of its nuclear program, did not immediately issue a formal statement about the incident on its website.
Natanz had a mysterious explosion in July that authorities later described as sabotage. 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 blamed Israel for the assassination of a scientist who started the country’s military nuclear program decades earlier. 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.
On Saturday, Iran announced that it had launched a chain of 164 IR-6 centrifuges at the plant, which injected them with uranium gas and quickly started spinning. 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.
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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 increased a long shadow war in Mideast waterways targeting shipping in the region.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.