| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran starts more efficient uranium enrichment: ISIS |
| 2010-08-07 |
| VIENNA - Iran has begun using extra equipment installed earlier this year to enrich uranium more efficiently, stepping up its nuclear work despite U.N. sanctions, a Western think-tank said on Friday. The Institute for Science and International Security said on its website that Iran was now using a second set, or “cascade”, of centrifuge machines at its Natanz pilot plant. It did not disclose the source of its information. Iran has been producing low-enriched uranium for some time and announced in February that it had started enriching uranium to a higher, 20 percent, level to make fuel for a medical research reactor. Analysts said the single cascade of machines Iran was using for the higher-level enrichment was inefficient because it left over a large quantity of low-enriched uranium alongside the highly enriched material. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said Iran had subsequently installed a second cascade of centrifuge machines but had not begun using it. A Vienna-based diplomat with knowledge of the IAEA investigation of Iran’s nuclear programme said the Iranians had been preparing the second cascade of machines for use in recent weeks. Use of the second cascade allows leftover material to be re-fed into the machines more easily, obtaining its full potential and making the work more efficient. “ISIS has learned that Iran is now using the second cascade at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz to recycle the tails from the first cascade,” ISIS said in its note. ISIS said the use of the second cascade meant the plant now needed less low-enriched uranium (LEU) than before to produce the same amount of 20-percent enriched uranium. It did not mean the output or enrichment level would increase, ISIS said. Western diplomats have said in the past that the second cascade could be reconfigured to enrich uranium to the higher level needed for use in nuclear weapons, a concern echoed by ISIS. “If Iran enriches to weapon-grade uranium, however, it is expected to use the same type of procedure,” ISIS said. “Thus, Iran’s current actions, while superficially justified on civil grounds, mainly make sense in the context of learning how to make significant quantities of highly enriched uranium efficiently.” Tehran has said it was forced to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity after the breakdown of a deal with Western powers and the IAEA, under which it would have sent 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium abroad in return for fuel rods for its medical reactor. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 nuclear blackmail coming soon! |
| Posted by: Mike Hunt 2010-08-07 18:52 |
| #1 TOPIX/WORLDNEWS > REPORT: IRAN. NORTH KOREA MAY SHARE NUCLEAR TEHCNOLOGY [Nukes]. SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIAL wants ROK to declare IRAN a NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT TO SOUTH KOREA oer possible NucTechs-sharing wid the DPRK. * SAME > {CSM.com] CHINA IS A BAROMETER ON WHETHER ISRAEL WILL ATTACK NUCLEAR PLANTS IN IRAN. * SAME > [NewsVine, CFR + Mike Hayden] IFF IRAN CAME CLOSE TO GETTING A NUCLEAR WEAPON, WOULD OBAMA USE [Military]FORCE?; + THE CLOCK TICKS ON OBAMA ACTION AGZ IRAN. * SAME > IRAN'S ATTEMPTS TO PROJECT POWER + IRAN WANTS STRONG ALLIANCE WID AFGHANISTAN AND TAJIKISTAN. * TOPIX > TURKEY, RUSSIA TO SET UP NEW "SECURITY ZONE" IN REGION. * TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > IRAN WARNS OF "UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES" IN CASE OF US ATTACK, |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-08-07 01:37 |