Iran pressing ahead with expanded Nuke enrichment - IAEA
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Perilous Times
Iran pressing ahead with expanded Nuke enrichment - IAEA*
UN nuclear inspectors have found new traces of plutonium, a possible
weapons material, in Iran, the UN atomic agency said in a confidential
report that was unable to confirm that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, obtained by AFP,
also detailed how Iran is pressing ahead with research levels of uranium
enrichment -- a process the West fears could be diverted to make a
nuclear bomb.
Despite the threat of UN sanctions over Tehran's refusal to hold back
its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced
Tuesday that Iran eventually planned to install tens of thousands of
uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel.
The IAEA report said the agency is investigating traces of plutonium
found in containers at a waste storage site at Karaj in Iran.
Iran has been "requested to provide further clarification" of highly
enriched uranium as well as plutonium particles found at Karaj and
responded to this request on Tuesday, the report said.
A senior UN official told reporters that the Iranian response had come
too late to be analyzed before an IAEA meeting next week in Vienna that
will review the Iranian nuclear program.
The official said an overall problem remains in getting full and timely
Iranian cooperation with the IAEA investigation into its atomic program
that began in February 2003.
Iran needs "to do more" to clear up "the ambiguities particular to some
of the alleged military aspects of the program," the official said.
According to the report, progress in this regard "is a prerequisite for
the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear
programme."
Ahamdinejad announced Tuesday that the ultimate aim of Iran's atomic
drive was to install some 60,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges to
produce nuclear fuel.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormak said the
announcement was a "cold jolt" to doubters of Tehran's nuclear arms
ambitions.
Iran has installed a new cascade, or production line, of centrifuges at
its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in the center of the country,
and now has two cascades of 164 centrifuges each running, as well as
several smaller cascades.
Iran from August 13 to November 2 fed "a total of approximately 34
kilograms" of feedstock uranium gas into centrifuges in Natanz,
producing a small amount of uranium enriched to low levels, the report said.
It did not detail how much uranium was produced but said enrichment
levels seemed to be below five percent, nowhere near the 90 percent
level needed to make atom bombs.
The research uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, where Iran wants
eventually to build a large-scale facility with over 50,000 centrifuges,
is monitored by the IAEA but the agency is also investigating possibly
military-related nuclear work by Iran elsewhere.
One such site was a physics laboratory at Lavizan in Tehran that was
razed in 2004 before IAEA inspectors could visit.
"Iran has not yet responded to the agency's long outstanding requests
for clarification concerning and access to carry out further
environmental sampling of equipment and materials related to the Physics
Research Centre (PHRC) nor has Iran provided the agency with access to
interview ... (a) former head of the PHRC," the report said.
The agency is also waiting for information on high explosives testing
and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle, the report said, adding
that Iran had not provided "sufficient claification" on experiments
designed to separate out plutonium.