Nitro Zeus is apparently still operational
A day after Iran launched advanced centrifuges at Natanz nuclear facility, the site had been struck by an electrical “accident,” Iranian state media says. The electrical grid at the nuclear site crashed a day after the new centrifuges were plugged in, an Iranian spokesman claimed.
On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani unveiled the centrifuges meant for producing enriched uranium, a key component of a nuclear bomb, amid televised fanfare marking the so-called “national nuclear day.”
There are indications of an Iranian cover up of the incident considering that regime officials and state-run media did not reveal further details or the extent of the “accident.”
The incident may have been caused by yet another cyber attack at one of Iran’s “most secure” nuclear sites site. “Based on reports, it seems that the so-called accident was caused by a cyber attack,” the newspaper added. Around 2010, the site was hit by malware that destroyed centrifuges and dealt a major blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Tehran has often pinned the blame on Israel and the United States for breakdowns and incidents at its nuclear sites. In July 2020, Natanz nuclear enrichment facility suffered an explosion and fire, triggering further allegations from Tehran.
The Associated Press reported the indecent at Natanz nuclear site:
Iran’s Natanz nuclear site suffered a problem Sunday involving its electrical distribution grid just hours after starting up new advanced centrifuges that more quickly enrich uranium, state TV reported. It was the latest incident to strike one of Tehran’s most secure sites amid negotiations over the tattered atomic accord with world powers.
Power had been cut across the facility of above-ground workshops and underground enrichment halls, civilian nuclear program spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told Iranian state television.
“Here the power has been cut off indeed, and we do not know the reason for the outage,” he said. “The incident is under investigation and we will inform you about the reason as we find out.”
The word state television used in its reports attributed to Kamalvandi in Farsi also can be used for “accident.”
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s program, said it was “aware of the media reports,” but declined to comment.
The commissioning of the new and advanced centrifuges was a major nuclear breach as Iran began mediated talks earlier this weeks with the Biden administration in Vienna, Austria.
The talks began after President Joe Biden made major concessions to the regime, revoking the enforcement of the U.N. sanctions and international weapons embargo, reversing former President Donald Trump’s decision.
As the week-long talks wounded down in Vienna, the Biden White House reportedly offered to end all sanctions imposed under President Trump’s watch on the Shia-Islamic regime. “The Biden administration has opened the door to lifting Trump-imposed sanctions against Iran that are “inconsistent” with the 2015 nuclear deal, and also those that prevent Iran from accessing broader economic benefits under the agreement, according to a senior State Department official.” the Washington Post reported on Friday.
UPDATE: According to news reports, Iranian regime has changed the initial “electrical accident” narrative and is calling the incident an act of “terrorism.” Iran’s “nuclear chief, “Ali Akbar Salehi, said that the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needed to deal with what he called nuclear terrorism,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Iran is now casting blame on Israel for disrupting its uranium enrichment program which aims to being the regime closer to building a nuclear bomb.