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Iran's uranium enrichment plant to start operation soon
12:59 - 08.01.12
Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility will start operations
soon, a senior nuclear official has said.
According to Reuters, the move is likely to increase tension between
the Islamic state and the West over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"The Fordow nuclear enrichment plant will be operational in the near
future ... 20 percent, 3.5 percent and four percent enriched uranium
can be produced at this site," said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy
Organisation Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, according to the Kayhan daily.
Iran has said for months that it is preparing to conduct uranium
enrichment at Fordow, a protected site deep inside a mountain near the
Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom in central Iran.
The United States and its allies say Iran is trying to build bombs,
but Tehran insists its nuclear programme is aimed at generating power.
The inauguration of the site could block fresh nuclear talks with
major powers aimed at resolving Iran's nuclear row through diplomacy.
Iran has called for talks on its nuclear programme with the permanent
members of the Security Council and Germany (P5+1), which have been
stalled for a year.
Diplomats told Reuters on Friday that Iran was believed to have begun
feeding uranium gas into centrifuges in Fordow in late December as
part of final preparations to use the machines for enrichment.
Iran is already refining uranium to a fissile purity of 20 percent -
far more than the 3.5 percent level usually required to power nuclear
energy plants - above ground at another location.
Diplomats have said it is moving this higher-grade enrichment to
Fordow in an apparent bid to better protect the work against any enemy
attacks. It also plans to sharply boost output capacity.
The United States and Israel, Iran's arch foes, have not ruled out
strikes against the Islamic state if diplomacy fails to resolve the
dispute.
Iran has been hit by four rounds of U.N. sanctions and the United
States and the EU have imposed increasingly tight economic sanctions
on Tehran over its nuclear programme.
Iran disclosed the existence of Fordow to the IAEA only in September
2009 after learning that Western intelligence agencies had detected
it.
Tert.am
12:59 - 08.01.12
Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility will start operations
soon, a senior nuclear official has said.
According to Reuters, the move is likely to increase tension between
the Islamic state and the West over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"The Fordow nuclear enrichment plant will be operational in the near
future ... 20 percent, 3.5 percent and four percent enriched uranium
can be produced at this site," said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy
Organisation Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, according to the Kayhan daily.
Iran has said for months that it is preparing to conduct uranium
enrichment at Fordow, a protected site deep inside a mountain near the
Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom in central Iran.
The United States and its allies say Iran is trying to build bombs,
but Tehran insists its nuclear programme is aimed at generating power.
The inauguration of the site could block fresh nuclear talks with
major powers aimed at resolving Iran's nuclear row through diplomacy.
Iran has called for talks on its nuclear programme with the permanent
members of the Security Council and Germany (P5+1), which have been
stalled for a year.
Diplomats told Reuters on Friday that Iran was believed to have begun
feeding uranium gas into centrifuges in Fordow in late December as
part of final preparations to use the machines for enrichment.
Iran is already refining uranium to a fissile purity of 20 percent -
far more than the 3.5 percent level usually required to power nuclear
energy plants - above ground at another location.
Diplomats have said it is moving this higher-grade enrichment to
Fordow in an apparent bid to better protect the work against any enemy
attacks. It also plans to sharply boost output capacity.
The United States and Israel, Iran's arch foes, have not ruled out
strikes against the Islamic state if diplomacy fails to resolve the
dispute.
Iran has been hit by four rounds of U.N. sanctions and the United
States and the EU have imposed increasingly tight economic sanctions
on Tehran over its nuclear programme.
Iran disclosed the existence of Fordow to the IAEA only in September
2009 after learning that Western intelligence agencies had detected
it.
Tert.am