Iran expanding enrichment at Natanz plant, says IAEA

Iran is expanding its enrichment of uranium beyond the threshold of 20 per cent purity at the Natanz plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.

The country is already enriching to 60 per cent, but this does not involve keeping the product, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

The move will probably help Iran refine its knowledge of the enrichment process, something western powers generally condemn because it is irreversible. However, since this time the product is not being collected, it will not immediately accelerate Iran's production of uranium enriched to close to weapons-grade.

It has, however, prompted the IAEA to “increase the frequency and intensity of its safeguards activities” at the aboveground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz, the IAEA said in a report seen by Reuters.

Around 90 per cent uranium is considered weapons-grade.

Outlining the report, the IAEA said Iran informed it last week of changes to the set-up of centrifuges — the machines that enrich uranium at the plant. Iran would then feed uranium enriched to up to 20 per cent into limited numbers of extra centrifuges without collecting the product.

“On 25 October 2021, the agency verified that Iran began feeding (uranium hexafluoride gas) enriched up to 20 per cent U-235 into a single IR-6 centrifuge in R & line 2 at PFEP and that the resulting product and tails streams were being recombined,” the IAEA report said, meaning that after the enriched product was separated it was mixed with the centrifuge's waste and not kept.

Iran said it planned to also feed uranium enriched to up to 20 per cent into other single centrifuges or small to medium-sized cascades, or clusters, of machines on the same line, but those were not being fed at the time, the IAEA said.

Iran has yet to announce a date to resume discussions in Vienna about reviving the 2015 nuclear pact under which it curbed its nuclear programme in return for relief from US, EU and UN economic sanctions.

Then-US president Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh US sanctions. About a year later, Iran started violating some of the deal's limits on uranium enrichment.

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Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

India squads

Test squad against Afghanistan: Rahane (c), Dhawan, Vijay, Rahul, Pujara, Karun, Saha, Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Umesh, Shami, Pandya, Ishant, Thakur.

T20 squad against Ireland and England: Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Raina, Pandey, Dhoni, Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Pandya, Kaul, Umesh.

ODI squad against England: Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Shreyas, Rayudu, Dhoni, Karthik, Chahal, Kuldeep, Sundar, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Pandya, Kaul, Umesh

The specs: 2019 GMC Yukon Denali

Price, base: Dh306,500
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Power: 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 621Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.9L / 100km

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US households add $601bn of debt in 2019

American households borrowed another $601 billion (Dh2.2bn) in 2019, the largest yearly gain since 2007, just before the global financial crisis, according to February data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.

Following the 22nd straight quarter of growth, American household debt swelled to $14.15 trillion by the end of 2019, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report.

In the final three months of the year, new home loans jumped to their highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2005, while credit cards and auto loans also added to the increase.

The bad debt load is taking its toll on some households, and the New York Fed warned that more and more credit card borrowers — particularly young people — were falling behind on their payments.

"Younger borrowers, who are disproportionately likely to have credit cards and student loans as their primary form of debt, struggle more than others with on-time repayment," New York Fed researchers said.