European nations rebuke Iran over uranium metal plans

France, Britain and Germany issue joint statement urging Iran to return to 'full compliance' with the nuclear deal

Russian contractors work at the Bushehr nuclear reactor site in 2007. The plant opened four years later. Bloomberg

An Iranian technician at the International Atomic Energy Agency inspects the country's Isfahan plant in 2007. Tehran is no longer co-operating with the agency at nuclear sites across the country. EPA

Workers wait to begin constructing a second reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2019. AFP

A metal-encased rod with 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel is inserted into a reactor in Tehran in 2012. AFP

Fomer Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the country's Atomic Energy Organisation chief Ali Akbar Salehi speak at the Bushehr nuclear site in 2015. AFP

Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant has been restarted. EPA

Mehdi Abrichamtchi, chairman of the Peace and Security Committee at the National Council of Resistance of Iran, shows journalists the location of a secret nuclear site in Iran in 2013. AFP

Workers prepare to begin the construction of a second reactor at the Bushehr site. AFP

Three European nations on Saturday warned Iran against starting work on uranium metal-based fuel for a research reactor, saying it contravened the 2015 nuclear deal and had serious military implications.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, and Tehran said on Wednesday that Iran had started the work, the latest breach of its agreement with six major powers as it presses for a lifting of US sanctions.

"We strongly encourage Iran to end this activity, and return to full compliance with its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action without delay, if it is serious about preserving this agreement," France, Britain and Germany said in a joint statement.

Iran has been accelerating its breaches in the past two months.

Some of those steps were triggered by a law passed in response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist in November, which Tehran has blamed on Israel.

They are also part of a process of retaliation that Tehran started in 2019 in response to US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the deal and reimposition of sanctions that the United States had scrapped in exchange for restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities.

The three powers, who remain in the deal with China and Russia, said they were "deeply concerned", and that Iran's production of uranium metal had no civilian credibility but potentially serious military implications.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said the decision to produce the fuel was unrelated to recent breaches.

"The advanced fuel production plan ... was first submitted to the IAEA more than two years ago, as stated in the IAEA's recent report; meanwhile more information was sent in several stages and finally the design questionnaire information has been sent to the IAEA," said a statement.

The nuclear deal bans Iran for 15 years from producing or acquiring uranium metal, a material that can be used in the core of a nuclear bomb.

The Iranian breaches raise pressure on US President-elect Joe Biden, who has pledged to return the United States to the deal if Iran first resumes full compliance. Iran wants Washington to lift sanctions first.