IAEA

IAEA: Iran expanding uranium enrichment

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-28 09:00

Iran is forging ahead with a nuclear fuel enrichment program in defiance of world pressure and stonewalling U.N. probes spurred by fears it secretly wants atomic weapons, a U.N. watchdog report said on Monday.

The report by International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei was circulated to IAEA board members before they meet on March 6 to discuss it. The report will be forwarded to the U.N. Security Council, which could consider sanctions.

"It is regrettable and a matter of concern that the uncertainties related to the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear program have not been clarified after three years of intensive agency verification," said the report, obtained by Reuters.

"We are not yet at the point to be able to conclude that this is a (peaceful nuclear program)," said a senior official familiar with IAEA investigations, who asked not to be named.

The report said Iran had begun vacuum-testing a cascade of 20 centrifuges -- machines that purify uranium UF6 gas into fuel suitable for nuclear power plants or, if enriched to high levels, for bombs -- at its Natanz pilot enrichment plant.

Iran had also begun substantial renovations of Natanz's system handling UF6. IAEA monitoring had been impaired by Iran's removal of agency safeguards seals from centrifuge-related raw materials and components, the report said.

Tehran had further told the IAEA it would start installing the first 3,000 of a planned 50,000 centrifuges in the fourth quarter of 2006, the 11-page report went on.

Some 3,000 centrifuges of the type Iran has at Natanz working nonstop for a year would produce the 20 kg (45 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU) needed for one atomic warhead, nuclear analysts say.

Iran's moves ended a 2 1/2-year enrichment moratorium agreed during since-collapsed talks with EU powers which had offered incentives if it curbed its nuclear ambitions, and spurred the IAEA board to report Tehran to the Security Council on February 4.

"SIGNIFICANT ESCALATION"

"ElBaradei has now reported Iran's intention to go beyond so-called R&D (research and development) and begin installing centrifuges in a full-scale enrichment facility. That's a significant escalation," said a senior Western diplomat.