Iran breaks UN seals on atomic plant
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-11 08:57

Iran broke U.N. seals at a uranium processing plant on Wednesday, escalating a confrontation with Western nations which fear it may develop nuclear weapons, reported Reuters.

As Iranian officials reopened sensitive areas of the Isfahan plant in central Iran, Britain, France and Germany struggled in Vienna to rally international pressure for a motion urging Tehran to go back to the voluntary freeze it broke on Monday.

"The removal of seals has been completed. The plant is fully operational now," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told Reuters by telephone from Vienna.

Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the Iranians had removed all seals on machines at Isfahan although she said it had left some on stockpiled nuclear materials.

An Iranian worker lifts a barrel of 'yellow cake' at the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan, August 8, 2005. [Reuters]

The U.N. watchdog put on the seals after Tehran agreed with the European Union's biggest powers to halt all nuclear fuel work last November to ease tensions after the IAEA found Iran had hidden weapons-grade highly enriched uranium.

Iran restarted work at less sensitive areas of the plant on Monday after rejecting economic and political incentives from Britain, France and Germany, known as the EU3, to give up its nuclear programme which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.

IAEA officials agreed Tehran's request to remove the seals after installing surveillance cameras to ensure no uranium is shifted away from the plant for any covert weapons work.

Under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Iran has signed, Tehran may process and enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. But the EU3 say the only way to prove peaceful intentions is to renounce all sensitive technologies.

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