The IRNA news agency officially reported on Sunday that Iran had confirmed on Sunday that the damaged building at the underground Nitzan nuclear site was the center of a new centrifuge assembly.
Iranian officials have previously tried to reduce the fires that occurred early Thursday, calling it an "incident" that has affected the industrial shed. However, the released photo and video of the site, which was broadcast by Iranian State Television, showed the two-story brick building with burning markings and its roof destroyed.
Iran nuclear agency spokesman Behroz Kamalwandi said on Sunday that work at the center had begun in 2013 and was due to begin in 2018.
"There are more sophisticated centrifuge machines out there," he said, adding that the damage "could delay the development and production of sophisticated centrifuge machines in the medium term."
He said the fire had damaged "precision and measuring equipment" and that the center was not operating at full capacity since Tehran banned nuclear deals with global powers in 2015. After unilaterally withdrawing from the deal, the US began experimenting with sophisticated centrifuge models two years ago.
Iran has long maintained its nuclear program for peaceful purposes.
An online video and messages of responsibility for the fire were released on Friday. Many, many different claims of the self-described group are called "Leopard Homeland", and experts from Iran have never heard of this group. Questions were raised as to whether Natja was again vandalized as it was engineered by the US and Israel at the time of the outbreak of the Stuxnet computer virus.
Analysts expect the Natzn fire to occur just a week after the explosion in the east of Tehran. Analysts expect it to hide underground tunnel systems and missile production sites.
Two US-based analysts spoke to The Associated Press on Friday, relying on images released and satellite images to identify the affected building as the center of Natazan's new Iran Centrifuge Assembly. A satellite image of Planet Labs, Inc., cited by experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies, shows what caused half of the building to be damaged.
Destruction of the centrifuge assembly facility will result in Israel or the U.S. Affects Iran's ability to enrich uranium.
Natzn today has the country's premier uranium enrichment facility. In their long underground chambers, centrifuges rapidly rotate the uranium hexafluoride gas to enrich uranium. Currently, the IAEA says that Iran will increase uranium to 4.5% purity - below the nuclear agreement terms, but below 90% of the weapons-grade level. According to the IAEA, the workers also performed tests on advanced centrifuges.
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