Iran Defends ‘Legitimacy’ of Enriching Uranium to 20% at Fordow

Kamalvandi meets with Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Rafael Grossi at Khomeini Airport, Nov.2021. (AP)
Kamalvandi meets with Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Rafael Grossi at Khomeini Airport, Nov.2021. (AP)
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Iran Defends ‘Legitimacy’ of Enriching Uranium to 20% at Fordow

Kamalvandi meets with Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Rafael Grossi at Khomeini Airport, Nov.2021. (AP)
Kamalvandi meets with Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Rafael Grossi at Khomeini Airport, Nov.2021. (AP)

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran defended the legitimacy of its latest step to accelerate uranium enrichment by 20 percent through operating IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Fordow facility.

Iran has escalated its uranium enrichment further with the use of advanced machines at Fordow in a setup that can more easily change between enrichment levels, the UN atomic watchdog said in a report on Saturday seen by Reuters.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said uranium enriched to 20 percent was collected for the first time from advanced IR-6 centrifuges on Saturday. He said Iran had informed the UN nuclear watchdog about the development two weeks ago.

The IR-6 centrifuges have already produced uranium enriched to purity of 20 percent, Kamalvandi stated.

He added that what the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has done is in line with its legitimate responsibility to launch and power 1,000 (six cascades) of IR6 centrifuges.

"On 7 July 2022, Iran informed the Agency that, on the same day, it had begun feeding the aforementioned cascade with UF6 enriched up to 5 percent U-235," the confidential report to IAEA member states said.

Iran had previously told the IAEA that it was preparing to enrich uranium through a new cascade of 166 advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its Fordow facility. But it hadn’t revealed the level at which the cascade would be enriching.

Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers had called for Fordow to become a research-and-development facility and restricted centrifuges there to non-nuclear uses.

The IAEA reported in April that Iran has uranium enriched to 60 percent purity — a short step to 90 percent.

Iran said it was working to enrich uranium to 20 percent at Fordow, a level well beyond the 3.67 percent agreed under the 2015 deal.



Thousands Protest Housing Crunch, High Rents in Barcelona

Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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Thousands Protest Housing Crunch, High Rents in Barcelona

Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Thousands of Spaniards rallied in downtown Barcelona on Saturday to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in the popular tourist destination.
People held up homemade signs in Spanish reading “Fewer apartments for investing and more homes for living,” and “The people without homes uphold their rights.”
The issue has become one of the leading concerns for the southern European Union country, mirroring the housing crunch across many parts of the world.
The average rent for Spain has doubled in the last decade. The price per square meter has risen from 7.2 euros in 2014 to 13 euros this year, according to the popular online real estate website Idealista. The growth is even more acute in cities like Barcelona and Madrid. Incomes meanwhile have failed to keep up, especially for younger people in country with chronically high unemployment.
Protestor Samuel Saintot said he is “frustrated and scared” after being told by the owners of the apartment he has rented for the past 15 years in Barcelona’s city center that he must vacate the premises. He suspects that the owners want him out so they renovate it and boost the price.
“Even looking in a 20- or 30-kilometer radius outside town, I can’t even find anything within the price range I can afford,” he told The Associated Press. “And I consider myself a very fortunate person, because I earn a decent salary. And even in my case, I may be forced to leave town.”
A report by the Bank of Spain indicates that nearly 40% of Spaniards who rent dedicate an average of 40% of their income to paying rents and utilities, compared to the European Union average of 27% of renters in that strained economic circumstance.
“We are talking about a housing emergency. It means people having many difficulties both in accessing and staying in their homes,” said Ignasi Martí, professor for Esade business school and head of its Dignified Housing Observatory.