Iran says has enriched uranium

Iran says has enriched uranium

Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:35 PM ET

By Christian Oliver

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization confirmed on Tuesday that Iran had enriched uranium to a level used in nuclear power plants.

"I am proud to announce that we have started enriching uranium to the 3.5 percent level," Gholamreza Aghazadeh said in a televised address, adding that the pilot enrichment plant in Natanz, south of Tehran, had started working on Monday.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iran was "moving in the wrong direction" with its nuclear program and if it persisted, the United States would discuss possible next steps with the U.N. Security Council.

"If the regime continues to move in the direction that it is currently, then we will be talking about the way forward with the other members of the Security Council and Germany about how to address this going forward," McClellan said on board Air Force One en route to Missouri.

Influential former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said earlier on Tuesday that Iran was producing enriched uranium from a cascade of 164 centrifuges.

Rafsanjani's comments to Kuwait's KUNA news agency came ahead of a planned announcement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about progress in Iran's nuclear program.

Iran's announcement is a serious setback to U.N. Security Council efforts to have Tehran halt enrichment work. It could escalate a confrontation with Western powers leading to consideration of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The West fears Iran is using its power station program as a smokescreen to build atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

"We operated the first unit which comprises of 164 centrifuges, gas was injected, and we got the industrial output," Rafsanjani said in an interview with KUNA.

"There needs to be an expansion of operations if we are to have a complete industrial unit; tens of units are required to set up a uranium enrichment plant," said Rafsanjani, who was Ahmadinejad's rival in last year's presidential race.

Ahmadinejad had said he would announce "good news" on atomic progress on Tuesday, but had not given details.

Rafsanjani's announcement may have been aimed at trumping his rival and taking credit for progress in the nuclear program, which has broad support in Iran, analysts said.

"They are competing with each other for who will be the first person," political analyst Saeed Laylaz said.

The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran shelve enrichment activity and on March 29 asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report on its compliance in 30 days.

An IAEA spokesman declined comment on Iran's announcement and said no official agency reaction was likely for the time being.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to visit Iran later this week to seek full Iranian cooperation with the Council and IAEA inquiries. The announcement of advances in enrichment work by Iran will cast an embarrassing cloud over ElBaradei's trip.

Iran was referred by the IAEA to the Council in February for failing to convince much of the international community that its nuclear work aims to generate only electricity, not weaponry, and will not pose a threat to international peace and security.

Reflecting anxiety about the nuclear dispute, investors shifted into the safe-haven Swiss franc after Rafsanjani made his comments, traders said. The nuclear dispute has also been a factor helping to push up oil prices to record levels.

'LOGICAL EXTENT OF PROGRESS'

Two weeks ago IAEA diplomats said Iran had set up a "cascade" of 164 centrifuges at its Natanz plant but no uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), the feedstock for enriched fuel, had yet been fed into them. It had tested 20 centrifuges, they added.

Iranian nuclear officials have previously said purifying uranium to 3.5 percent -- the level needed for fuel for power stations -- would require the operation of 164 centrifuges, which spin it at supersonic speeds to heighten the concentration of its most radioactive isotope, U-235.

The level of enrichment needed to trigger the nuclear chain reaction that detonates bombs is far higher, around 90 percent. But even word that low-level enrichment is under way will be unacceptable to Western powers, diplomats say.

Iran has only one nuclear power plant under construction but plans to build more and says it wants to make its own fuel.

"It may be that they have begun feeding the 164. That might be the logical extent of progress since late March. It wouldn't be surprising," a European Union diplomat accredited to the IAEA said when asked about Ahmadinejad's teaser.

"164 centrifuges is still well short of producing enriched uranium in a significant quantity over a sustained period. But the more they do it, the more they learn the technology. So any form of enrichment is a red line for us," the diplomat said.

A special team of IAEA inspectors went to Iran on Friday to gather fresh information at nuclear sites for ElBaradei's pending report to the Security Council. IAEA officials have declined to divulge any findings so far.

It would take Iran years to yield enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb with such a small cascade. But Iran has told the IAEA it will start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year, enough to produce material for a warhead in a year.

Washington has said repeatedly it wants to resolve the nuclear stand-off by diplomatic means. But analysts say advances in uranium enrichment technology by Iran may be the tripwire for the United States or Israel to take military action.