Iran Expands Uranium Enrichment
Pastor Dale Morgan
Iran Expands Uranium Enrichment*
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
The Associated Press
Monday, April 9, 2007; 12:41 PM
NATANZ, Iran -- Iran announced Monday that it has begun enriching
uranium with 3,000 centrifuges, defiantly expanding a nuclear program
that has drawn U.N. sanctions and condemnation from the West.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony at the enrichment
facility at Natanz that Iran was now capable of enriching nuclear fuel
"on an industrial scale."
Asked if Iran has begun injecting uranium gas into 3,000 centrifuges for
enrichment, top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani replied, "Yes." He did
not elaborate, but it was the first confirmation that Iran had installed
the larger set of centrifuges after months of saying it intends to do
so. Until now, Iran was only known to have 328 centrifuges operating.
Uranium enrichment can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or the
material for a nuclear warhead. The United States and its allies accuse
Iran of intending to produce weapons, a charge the country denies.
Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said the U.N. Security
Council and the U.N. nuclear watchdog group "don't believe Iran's
assurances that their (nuclear) program is peaceful in nature."
The White House also criticized the announcment.
"Iran continues to defy the international community and further isolate
itself by expanding its nuclear program, rather than suspending uranium
enrichment," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security
Council.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear
watchdog, had no immediate comment on Monday's announcement.
The United Nations has vowed to ratchet up sanctions as long as Iran
refuses to suspend enrichment. The Security Council first imposed
limited sanctions in December, then increased them slightly last month
and has set a new deadline of late May.
"What we are looking for are reasonable Iranian leaders who view the
cost-benefit calculation and see that it is not to the benefit of the
Iranian people to continue to pursue the course on which they find
themselves," McCormack said.
Michael Levi, a fellow for science and technology at the Council on
Foreign Relations, was skeptical of the Iranian claims. He said by his
calculations, the capabilities Iran has just announced would provide 10
percent of the material needed to run its plant.
"To me, that's not industrial scale," Levi said. "An industrial-scale
facility is a facility that can support your industry."
On the other hand, "from a political perspective, it's more important to
have them in place than to have them run properly," he explained since
the announcement stirs up support and patriotism at home, and the
international community has almost no way to verify how well the program
is working.
"Iran looks to be moving its nuclear program along on a political
schedule rather than a technical schedule," Levi said.
Levi marveled that Iran has the power to cause such a stir with an
announcement. He noted that most of the time, world leaders complain
they can't trust Iran, "except when they say something really scary, we
take them at their word."
In his speech, Ahmadinejad insisted Iran has been cooperative with the
U.N. nuclear watchdog, allowing it inspections of its facilities, but he
warned, "Don't do something that will make this great nation reconsider
its policies" in a reference to the threat of increased U.N. sanctions.
"With great honor, I declare that as of today our dear country has
joined the nuclear club of nations and can produce nuclear fuel on an
industrial scale," Ahmadinejad said.
Larijani said his country was willing to offer assurances that its
program is peaceful. But he said the West must accept its nuclear
program as a fact: "We do not give in our rights."
On April 9, 2006, Iran announced it had first enriched uranium using an
array of 164 centrifuges.
Across Iran, school bells rang on Monday to mark the "national day of
nuclear energy." The government sent out text messages of
congratulations for the occasion to millions of mobile phone users.
In Tehran, some 200 students formed a human chain at Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization while chanting "death to America" and "death to
Britain." The students burnt flags of the U.S. and Britain.
Experts say the Natanz plant needs between 50,000 to 60,000 centrifuges
to consistently produce fuel for a reactor or build a warhead.
In the enrichment process, uranium gas is pumped into a "cascade" of
thousands of centrifuges, which spin the gas at supersonic speeds to
purify it. Uranium enriched to a low level, at least 3 percent, can be
used as fuel, while at a far higher level, more than 90 percent, it can
be used to build a weapon.
Also Monday, Iranian state television reported that an Iranian
Revolutionary Guard general who is under travel restrictions urged by
the sanctions visited Russia without any difficulty.
Gen. Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, who is also deputy interior minister for
security affairs, was quoted on the state TV Web site as saying that his
six-day journey to Moscow, which ended Monday, showed "the
ineffectiveness of the resolution."
The resolution urges all governments to ban visits by the 15 individuals
and says that should such visits occur _ presumably for exceptional
circumstances _ the countries should notify a U.N. committee.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Krivtsov confirmed that
Zolqadr visited Russia. He told The Associated Press that the resolution
does not prohibit visits by the listed individuals, but calls for
heightened vigilance "directed first of all at people who are directly
related to nuclear programs" _ suggesting that Zolqadr was not.
Tensions are also high between Iran and the West following the 13-day
detention of 15 British sailors by Iran. The sailors, who were seized by
Revolutionary Guards off the Iraqi coast, were released on Wednesday,
but since then have said they were put under psychological pressure by
their captors to force them to "confess" to being in Iranian waters when
captured, angering many in Britain.
____
AP writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.