Iran has announced plans to begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges at its Fordo and Natanz nuclear facilities, as reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday. The enrichment will be carried out to 5% purity, significantly lower than the current 60% level, indicating a potential willingness to engage in negotiations with the West and the incoming U.S. administration.
The IAEA disclosed that Iran will use new centrifuges including the IR-2M, IR-4, and IR-6 models to enrich uranium. These advanced centrifuges operate faster than Iran's baseline IR-1 centrifuges, enhancing the enrichment process. While the exact number of centrifuges in each cascade remains unspecified, Iran has previously utilized around 160 centrifuges in a single cascade.
