Iran expands advanced centrifuge work underground: IAEA

VIENNA, (Reuters) 9 June 2022 -  Iran has begun installing advanced IR-6 centrifuges in a cluster at an underground enrichment plant in line with a longstanding plan and now intends to add two more such clusters, or cascades, the U.N. nuclear watchdog told its member states on Wednesday.  

The moves are described in a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report sent to member states shortly before the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution criticising Iran for failing to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.  

The IAEA report was seen by Reuters and confirmed by the agency.  

Iran’s commercial-scale Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz is its biggest and was built underground, apparently to protect it from potential aerial bombardment.  
Iran informed the IAEA in a letter received on June 6 of its intention to install two “new cascades” of IR-6 machines at the underground plant, the report said.