 PARIS - Iran has assembled and is testing 15 so-called P2 centrifuges which can speed up uranium enrichment, the process which makes nuclear fuel or atom bomb material, an Iranian opposition group said on Thursday.
| If true -- a big if -- that cuts considerably the time required to process the UF6. |
The National Council of Resistance of Iran said it had also located what it called a secret production site for the equipment near Tehran.
The claim, made at a news conference in Paris, came as Iran seemed headed for a showdown at the UN Security Council next week over its nuclear programme and facing the threat of sanctions for failing to freeze enrichment. Having P2 centrifuges -- more sophisticated than P1 versions -- would give Iran an increased capability to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel or atom bomb material.
“According to information obtained ... at least 15 P2 centrifuges have been assembled so far and are being tested,” said the NCRI’s Mohammad Mohadessin. “A secret project to make P1 and P2 centrifuges was launched about two years ago under the pseudonym Shams.” He said the “secret” production site with three hangars was on a side road three km from a junction in the Pars district of eastern Tehran on the main road toward Damavand.
On Wednesday, an Iranian news agency reported that Iran would soon announce a breakthrough that would “highlight its mastery of different areas in nuclear science and reinforce Iran’s position as a nuclear country.”
| And now it all begins to make sense. Wanna bet the Mad Mullahs™ have had P2 centrifuges spinning for a while? |
Mohadessin said blueprints for the P2 centrifuges were provided in 1995 by disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
He called for immediate sanctions against Iran, saying its leadership was bent on creating its own “empire.” “Let me warn all those countries that seek to continue talks with the regime for their economic interests and prevent the imposition of sanctions by the UN Security Council that the mullahs’ Islamic empire would also seriously threaten their security and peace,” he said.
| Sure, you go ahead and convince the EU. Let us know. |
“Imposition of immediate and comprehensive sanctions against the regime is the first step to prevent the most dangerous regime in the world arming itself with the most dangerous weapon.”
Separately, Mohadessin said Tehran was “working day and night to be able to produce 14 kilograms of plutonium annually starting from next year for nuclear bombs.” Plutonium is another weapons material which is made via a separate process to enriched uranium.
| How nice, another situation we haven't heard about. What else do they have going? |
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