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Officials say the fire at the Iranian nuclear facility has caused no casualties




Iran's Natanz nuclear facility has been set on fire, but no casualties have been reported, the Iranian authorities said.


Iran's main uranium enrichment site is one of the many Iranian facilities overseen by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the Natanz Fuel Growth Plant (FEP).

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization initially reported an incident "at a facility in the central province of Isfahan".

It later published a photo showing a shed at the partially burned ground level.

Company spokesman Beharoz Kamalwandi said, "There is some damage to the shed we are investigating. It is useless and lacks radioactive materials and personnel."

"There is no interruption to the promotion site's work and no damage to the site."

Later, the governor of Natanz City, Ramzanli Firdosi, said the incident was caused by fire and that firefighters were dispatched to the site. The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that they did not provide further information about the cause of the explosion.

A team of Atomic Energy Organization experts are investigating the cause of the incident.

Given the importance of the Nataz nuclear site, some experts have ruled out the possibility of destruction.

A former Iranian nuclear official told Reuters, "The incident happened just days after the explosion near the Parchin military base and cannot be ruled out."

"Additionally, the Natzen Enrichment facility has previously targeted a computer virus," he said, noting that the Stuxnet computer virus attack in 2010 damaged the centrifuges on the site and is believed to be in the United States. Developed by the US and Israel.

Last Friday, an explosion near a sensitive military complex east of Tehran caused a tank leak at a gas storage facility in a public area, officials said.

Western security services believe that Tehran conducted nuclear bombardment tests a decade ago, based on the development of the military and weapons of Parchin. Iran has rejected such tests.

Iran agreed in 2015 to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of most international sanctions on the deal between Tehran and the six world powers.

But US President Donald Trump's administration has backed out of the deal in 2018 and re-intensified sanctions that have hurt the Iranian economy, as Tehran has gradually cut its commitments to the deal.

The deal will only allow Iran to enrich uranium at the Natur facility, which has more than 5,000 of its first-generation IR-1 centrifuges.

Israel backed Trump's "maximum pressure" policy on Tehran, intending to force it to agree to a new agreement that would impose stricter restrictions on its nuclear work, curb its ballistic missile program and end its regional proxy wars.

Iran said it would not negotiate until the sanctions were in place.

No immediate comment from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

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