Speaking to Press TV, Behrouz Kamalvandi said the recent Bloomberg report, which tried to hint that Iran was enriching uranium to 84% purity, contained yet another “conspiracy” against the Iranian nuclear program.
He explained why uranium particles enriched to 84% purity had been found by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Iranian sites, saying the existence of highly-enriched uranium particles in the pipes connecting centrifuges was a “normal issue.”
“For example, we are producing 5 percent enriched [uranium], 11 percent particle is seen in it, or we are producing 20 percent [enriched uranium], 47 percent particle is seen in it. We had several correspondences about this in the past… it’s a natural thing in enrichment,” he was quoted as saying.
“The machine is spinning fast. If the amount of the feed decreases for a moment, the enrichment will increase by a few percent; but it doesn’t matter because the end product is what matters,” he said.
Kamalvandi added that if Iran decides to produce highly-enriched uranium, it will openly announce it to the IAEA, but so far it has not seen the need to enrich uranium beyond the 60% mark.
He criticized the IAEA for allowing the classified correspondence between Tehran and the agency to leak to the press, holding the agency “100 percent guilty” in the case.
