TEHRAN – Iran accepted some limitations in the nuclear deal, aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but from a technical point of view it did not lose anything, says the former chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

Based on a parliamentary ratification, the AEOI immediately started to produce nuclear fuel with purity of 20 percent, Ali Akbar Salehi told IRNA in an interview published on Friday.

The ratification stated 120 kilos of nuclear fuel with 20% enrichment should be produced in one year, but in almost a year about 400 kilos of it were produced, Salehi explained.

“It shows that not only we did not lose anything in the nuclear industry, but with great vigilance, we progressed rapidly without disrupting the (nuclear) deal,” he noted.

More than 100 kilos of 60% fuel and uranium metal were produced, and new generation of centrifuges such as IR9 were installed, which has a 50-fold capacity in comparison to the old ones, Salehi, a nuclear physicist, stated.

Salehi went on to say that Iran did not disrupt the 2015 nuclear deal and it was committed to its obligations but produced uranium metal while it was allowed to do research on it 15 years after the conclusion of the JCPOA.

The former nuclear chief also hoped that the JCPOA would be revived so that the sanctions would be lifted and Iran could have banking transactions freely.