Iran Natanz nuclear site suffered major damage, official says

Thousands of machines used to refine nuclear material were destroyed or damaged in an attack at a key site on Sunday, an Iranian official has said.

Alireza Zakani, head of the Iranian parliament’s Research Centre, said the incident had “eliminated” Iran’s ability to carry out the process.

The attack took place in a facility up to 50m (165ft) underground, another official said.

Iran has blamed Israel for what it called an act of “nuclear terrorism”.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any involvement, but Israel public radio cited intelligence sources as saying it was a Mossad cyber-operation.

Iran says it will replace the affected centrifuges – machines used to refine, or enrich, the chemical element uranium for use in nuclear energy or potentially nuclear bombs – with more advanced ones.

It also says it will greatly increase the quality of enrichment – from 20% to 60% purity – on Wednesday. Enriching to either level is prohibited under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, and while 60% is significantly closer to the 90% required for a nuclear weapon, it is still some way off.

Iran had initially acknowledged that centrifuges – machines used to refine, or enrich, the chemical element uranium for use in nuclear energy or potentially nuclear bombs – were damaged, but without elaborating.

However, speaking on state-run Ofoq TV channel, Mr Zakani said the damage was extensive.

“Is it normal that today they reach a pit of our electricity system and take actions so that several thousand centrifuges are damaged and destroyed in one instant?” he asked.

“Should not we be sensitive over the incident that happened [on Sunday], eliminating the main part of our enrichment capacities?”

Source: bbc.com

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