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| Iran to treble atomic fuel output : Ahmadinejad |
| 2010-02-12 |
| [Dawn] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had produced its first consignment of 20 per cent enriched uranium two days after the Islamic state announced it had started making higher-grade atomic fuel. He also said in a televised speech that Iran would in the near future treble output of the fuel, adding it was able to refine the material further at its Natanz plant. "Right now at Natanz we have the capability to enrich uranium to much higher levels," the president told a huge crowd of flag-waving people in Tehran's Azadi Square, comments likely to add to Western concern about the Islamic state's nuclear ambitions. "By God's grace ... it was reported that the first consignment of 20 percent enriched uranium was produced and was put at the disposal of the scientists," he told the crowd marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. "In the near future we will treble its production," Ahmadinejad added. A level of 80% enriched uranium is required to make a nuclear weapon. The bold announcement comes only days after the US and Israel called for tough, new sanctions against Iran which they believe is producing a nuclear weapons program. However former US officials and independent nuclear experts have claimed that Iran is experiencing surprising setbacks in its efforts to enrich uranium, and assessments suggest equipment failures and other difficulties could undermine its effort to ramp up its nuclear program, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. Iran insists it is using nuclear technology for peaceful energy production. The Post said UN reports over the last year have shown a drop in production at Iran's main uranium enrichment plant, near the city of Natanz. A new assessment, based on three years of internal data from UN nuclear inspections, suggests that Iran's mechanical woes are deeper than previously known, it said. Through the end of 2009, the Natanz plant appeared to have performed so poorly that sabotage could not be ruled out as an explanation. The newspaper said a separate, forthcoming analysis by the Federation of American Scientists also discussed Iran's flagging performance and suggested the failures could increase Iran's appetite for a deal with the West. Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the federation's Strategic Security Program, told the Post, Iranian leaders appeared to have raced into large-scale uranium production for political reasons. "They are really struggling to reproduce what is literally half-century-old European technology and doing a really bad job of it," Oelrich said. The findings are in line with assessments by numerous former US and European officials and weapons analysts who say that Iran's centrifuges appear to be breaking down at a faster rate than expected, the Post said. But analysts also warned that Iran remains capable of making enough enriched uranium for a small arsenal of nuclear weapons, if it decides to do so. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > IRAN THREATENS TO INCREASE ENRICHMENT UNLESS US THREATS STOP. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-02-12 22:59 |