IRAN:Iran is edging closer to confrontation with the UN on its nuclear programme as it prepares to enhance significantly its underground nuclear installation, writes Mark Heinrichin Vienna
Iran has installed two cascades of 164 centrifuges each in its underground nuclear plant, laying a basis for full-scale enrichment of uranium and upping the stakes in its stand-off with the West, European diplomats said yesterday.
The cascades are to be test-run shortly, without uranium feedstock inside, and fuel material would then be added if the tests were successful, they said.
The 328 centrifuges would be the vanguard of 3,000 planned for installation in the coming months.
Iran recently finished installing piping, electrical cables and other equipment needed to begin so-called "industrial-scale" enrichment in the vast subterranean complex at Natanz, which is fortified and ringed by anti-aircraft guns in the central Iranian desert.
Firing up the cascades would dramatically sharpen Iran's confrontation with western powers that pushed through limited UN sanctions on Tehran six weeks ago to try to curb what they suspect is a disguised effort to assemble atomic bombs.
The Islamic republic, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, says it wants solely civilian atomic energy from uranium enrichment.
Diplomats said the installation of the first two cascades was likely to be the gist of Iran's planned announcement of "significant" nuclear progress on February 11th, when it caps anniversary celebrations of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"Two cascades have been installed in the underground plant, but they are not yet being run with gas," said an EU diplomat in Vienna, headquarters of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has inspectors at Natanz.
"Their plan is to start dry-spinning the cascades within days and then start feeding them with UF6 [uranium feedstock gas]," the diplomat said, alluding to findings during recent visits by IAEA inspectors.
"The Iranians appear to intend to have about six cascades (about 1,000 centrifuges) installed by the spring, and the rest of the 3,000 by around June." Iran plans to rig up a total of 54,000 centrifuges at Natanz in the longer term.
There was no immediate IAEA comment. Such confidential information would be in a report the IAEA must deliver to the UN Security Council on February 21st on whether Iran has heeded its demand to stop enriching uranium.
If not, Iran faces the threat of broader sanctions.
Iranian media have repeatedly quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying February 11th will be a day to "prove the Iranian nation's obvious right" to nuclear technology.
Three thousand centrifuges going nonstop could purify enough uranium for one bomb within a year, assuming Iran wants one.
However, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said plenty of time remains for the major world powers and Iran to resuscitate negotiations. - (Reuters)