Iran’s president has announced that Tehran will begin injecting uranium gas into 1,044 centrifuges.

It is the country’s latest step away from its nuclear deal with world powers since US president Donald Trump withdrew from the accord more than a year ago.

The development is significant as the centrifuges previously spun empty, without gas injection, under the landmark 2015 nuclear accord. It also increases pressure on European nations that remain in the accord, which at this point has all but collapsed.

In his announcement, president Hassan Rouhani did not say whether the centrifuges, which are at its nuclear facility in Fordo, would be used to produce enriched uranium. The centrifuges would be injected with the uranium gas as of Wednesday, Mr Rouhani said.

His remarks, carried live on Iranian state television, came a day after Tehran’s nuclear programme chief said the country had doubled the number of advanced IR-6 centrifuges in operation.

There was no immediate reaction from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog now monitoring Iran’s compliance with the deal.

The European Union has called on Iran to return to the deal, while the White House sanctioned members of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s inner circle as part of its maximalist campaign against Tehran.

Mr Rouhani stressed the steps taken so far, including going beyond the deal’s enrichment and stockpile limitations, could be reversed if Europe offers a way for it to avoid US sanctions choking off its crude oil sales abroad.

“We should be able to sell our oil,” Mr Rouhani said. “We should be able to bring our money” into the country.

Centrifuges

The centrifuges at Fordo are IR-1s, Iran’s first-generation centrifuge. The nuclear deal allowed those at Fordo to spin without uranium gas, while allowing up to 5,060 at its Natanz facility to enrich uranium.

A centrifuge enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. An IR-6 centrifuge can produce enriched uranium 10 times faster than an IR-1, Iranian officials say.

Iranian scientists are also working on a prototype called the IR-9, which works 50-times faster than the IR-1, Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akhbar Salehi said.

As of now, Iran is enriching uranium up to 4.5 per cent, in violation of the accord’s limit of 3.67 per cent. Enriched uranium at the 3.67 per cent level is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.

At the 4.5 per cent level, it is enough to help power Iran’s Bushehr reactor, the country’s only nuclear power plant. Prior to the atomic deal, Iran only reached up to 20 per cent.

Tehran has gone from producing some 450 grams of low-enriched uranium a day to five kilograms, Mr Salehi said. Iran now holds more than 500 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, Mr Salehi said. The deal had limited Iran to 300 kilograms.

The collapse of the nuclear deal coincided with a tense summer of mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities that the US blamed on Iran. Tehran denied the allegation, though it did seize oil tankers and shoot down a US military surveillance drone. – AP