Iran installs enrichment centrifuges
2013-02-13 21:00
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Tehran - Iran said on Wednesday that it has begun
installing a new generation of centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment
facility, a move that will allow it to vastly increase its pace of uranium
enrichment in defiance of UN calls to halt such activities.
Vice President Fereidoun Abbasi told the official IRNA
news agency that the machines will only produce low-level enriched uranium,
which is used to make nuclear fuel, but high-level enrichment makes it suitable
for use in the core of a nuclear weapon.
Abbasi said Iranian nuclear scientists began installing
the advanced centrifuges at Natanz about a month ago.
"We've produced enough of these machines and are
installing and starting them up gradually," Abbasi said.
The announcement coincided with a new round of talks on Wednesday
with senior International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors over
allegations that Tehran might have carried out tests on triggers for atomic
weapons.
It also could affect negotiations planned later this
month between Iran and six world powers.
Iran has more than 10 000 centrifuges that are enriching
uranium at Natanz, 225km southeast of Tehran.
But the machines are of the old IR-1 type. Iran told the
IAEA last month that it intended to install newer IR-2 centrifuges, machines
that can produce more enriched uranium at a shorter period of time.
"The centrifuges installed at Natanz are
first-generation machines based on old technology," the semi-official ISNA
news agency quoted Abbasi as saying.
"We were able to produce composite materials... We
built centrifuge rotors from those materials which make the machines more durable.
The new generation of centrifuges is more efficient."
New machines
Abbasi said Iran would use the new machines to produce 5%
level enriched uranium.
The visit by the UN team, led by Herman Nackaerts, comes
a day after Tehran raised prospects that the IAEA could be allowed to inspect
Parchin, a military site where the agency suspects nuclear-related experiments
were conducted.
But Abbasi said no such visit was on the negotiating
table.
"Parchin is not a nuclear site. We've said this
repeatedly. There is no word about visiting Parchin or any other site," he
said.
Iran says the agency's suspicions are based on forged
intelligence provided by the CIA, the Israeli Mossad, Britain's MI-6 and other
intelligence agencies.
"Removing ambiguities requires evidence. If the
agency has any documents related to ambiguities about Parchin, it is necessary
that they give it to us," IRNA quoted Abbasi as saying.
Iranian officials say they have bitter memories of
permitting IAEA inspections at Parchin in the past, and replying to a long list
of queries over its nuclear programme.
Tehran says any new agency investigation must be governed
by an agreement that lays out the scope of such a probe.
Iran says it cannot allow its security to be compromised
by allowing the IAEA access to non-nuclear facilities on the basis of
suspicions raised by foreign intelligence agencies that Tehran considers
enemies.
Abbasi also criticised the IAEA for leaking information
on Iran's nuclear programme.
- AP
