IAEA: Iran has doubled underground nuclear capacity

(JPost) Iran has doubled the number of uranium- enrichment centrifuges it has in an underground bunker, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, showing Tehran’s defiance toward Western pressure to stop its atomic work and the threat of an attack.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also said in a report that “extensive activities” – a reference to a suspected clean-up – at Iran’s Parchin military complex would hamper its investigation of possible past nuclear weapons development there, if inspectors are ever granted access.

The number of enrichment centrifuges at Fordow, a site buried deep inside a mountain to better protect it against any enemy strike, more than doubled to 2,140 from 1,064 in May, according to the IAEA’s quarterly report. However, the new centrifuges are not yet operating, it said.

The report showed that Iran had produced nearly 190 kilograms of highergrade enriched uranium since 2010, up from 145 kilograms in May.

An Israeli government official responded to the IAEA report by saying it “is further proof of what Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu has been saying about Iran for years.”

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