Iran is set to begin enriching uranium and plans to build 10 new facilities over the next year where enrichment can be carried out, the head of the country's atomic energy organisation has said.
Speaking to al-Alam, Iran's Arabic-language state television station, Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran would begin enriching uranium to a level of 20 per cent by Tuesday.
"We will hand over an official letter to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] tomorrow, informing the agency that we will start making 20 per cent enriched fuel from Tuesday at the Natanz plant," he said.
The announcement is likely to cause friction with the US and its allies who accuse Iran of trying to build a nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for purely civilian purposes.
Iran had announced plans to build 10 new enrichment plants in a major expansion of its atomic programme in November, but at the time did not specify the timeframe.
Difficult change
Alireza Ronaghi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tehran, said: "It's a new phase in Iran's nuclear achievement, but it is not going to happen over night.
"A very difficult design process will have to take place. They'll need to change the existing capacity that consists of 4,000 - 5,000 centrifugal machines.
"It will also infringe upon Iran's current capacity for enriching uranium to a level of 3.5 - 4 per cent, which is necessary for it's current nuclear programme.
"Regardless, these are the things that many conservatives in Iran think will make the country's hand stronger in negotiations with the West."
Salehi's statements follow instructions from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, on Sunday that he start the production of higher-grade nuclear reactor fuel.
But Salehi has also suggested that production would be halted if Iran received fuel enriched to 20 per cent from abroad.
Swap compliance
Iran has expressed readiness to exchange its low-enriched uranium for higher-grade fuel, but has demanded amendments to the UN-drafted IAEA plan, under which Iran would export its low-enriched uranium abroad for enrichment.
"Iran would halt its enrichment process for the Tehran research reactor any time it receives the necessary fuel for it," Salehi said.
The UN plan was drawn up in early October in a meeting in Geneva between Iran and the six world powers - the UK, China, France, Russia, the US and Germany - and later refined at a meeting in Vienna.
The Vienna talks came up with a draft proposal that would take 70 per cent of Iran's low-enriched uranium to reduce its stockpile of material that could be enriched to a higher level, and possibly be used to make nuclear weapons.
That uranium would be returned about a year later as refined fuel rods, which can power reactors but cannot be readily turned into weapons-grade material.
Ahmadinejad had last week appeared to support the deal in an interview on state television, but on Sunday he blamed the West for the stalemate over the deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment