The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi told the Fars News Agency on Sunday that an accident had taken place in a part of the electricity distribution network of the Shahid Ahmadi Roshan facility in Natanz, a city in Isfahan Province, some 185 miles south of Tehran.
The word that was used by Kamalvandi in Farsi was “haadeseh,” from the root “hadish” for “new” (as in “hadash” in Hebrew) which can mean either “accident” or “incident.”
Iran announced on the occasion of its 15th annual “National Nuclear Technology Day” Saturday, that it had begun to operate cascades of 164 advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium (Iran Announces Startup of Advanced Centrifuges at Natanz). In a state televised ceremony held at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, cascades of IR-6 centrifuges and 30 IR-5 devices were officially inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani, who unveiled Iran’s “133 new nuclear achievements.”
According to the Tasnim News Agency, “The major projects and products include the second phase of industrial plants producing deuterated compounds in Khandab in Arak, an emergency care for burns using radiation therapy in Arak, six nuclear enrichment projects in Natanz, disk lasers, Iran Quantum Technologies Center in Tehran, a number of centrifuge machines used by the Blood Transfusion Organization of Iran, and 110 isotope-based biomolecules used in neonatal screening kits.”
On July 2, 2020, around 2 AM, there were explosions and a major fire in the centrifuge production plant at the nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. A group calling itself “Cheetahs of the Homeland” claimed responsibility for the attack. Iranian officials suggested at the time that this may have been caused by cyber sabotage.