Iran ready to install centrifuges at new uranium-enrichment site

Apr 12 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Farshid Motahari dpa, Berlin

Iran said it is ready to install centrifuges at a newly built uranium-enrichment site near the capital, Tehran, press reports said Tuesday.

Atomic Energy Organization head Fereydoun Abbasi told the ISNA news agency that centrifuges were being built and would be installed at the Fordo site.

Abbasi said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, would be informed ahead of the installation of the centrifuges.

Fordo, 160 kilometres south of Tehran, is supposed to become the second enrichment site after Natanz in central Iran.

The site was first inspected by the IAEA in October 2009, and Iranian officials had said the plant would become operational by summer 2011 with at least 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium.

Iran has numerous projects and plans for expanding its nuclear work, including four new research reactors to be constructed within the next few years.

The only nuclear power plant available is a Russian-built facility in the southern Gulf port of Bushehr, but its 1,000-megawatt reactor has not yet been made operational and not connected to the national electricity network.

Iran is mired in a dispute with the international community over its nuclear programme, which other governments fear is being used to develop weapons.

Tehran insisted it is only interested in producing electricity. The government aims eventually to add 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power to the country's network.