Iran agrees to nuclear framework with US and others

Vox: Iran is close to signing an agreement with the 5+1 nations—the US, the UK, France, China, and Russia, plus Germany—over its nuclear energy program. The deal will drastically curtail Iran’s ability to enrich uranium but will still allow the country to maintain expertise in nuclear technology. The framework calls for Iran to reduce its number of centrifuges from 20 000 to around 6000, use only its inefficient IR-1 design, destroy the more advanced centrifuges, reduce its enriched uranium stockpile from 10 000 kg to 300 kg, ship spent fuel out of the country, agree to a strict verification regime, decommission the plutonium plant at Arak, and switch to using low-enriched uranium in its reactors. The move will increase Iran’s “breakout time"—the time it would take for the country to develop a nuclear bomb—from three months to one year. In return, all sanctions against Iran will be removed. A final draft agreement is expected 30 June.