Iran prepares more machines to enrich uranium
Print Edition
Iran has prepared more than 1,000 advanced uranium enriching machines for startup, the UN’s nuclear agency said yesterday, a move likely to raise concerns among countries who accuse Tehran of wanting to harness enrichment for the production of atomic weapons.
At the same time, the International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran had pushed back the time frame for the operation of a reactor Iran’s critics fear could be used to make plutonium, which — like enriched uranium — can be used for the fissile core of nuclear weapons.
The report confirmed that the IAEA and Iranian experts had agreed to restart talks focused on the agency’s attempts to probe suspicions Tehran worked on atomic weapons. The meeting is planned for September 27.
Iran denies interest in nuclear weapons, insisting that both enrichment and the reactor are for peaceful purposes.
The report said Iran had installed about 300 more advanced centrifuges since the last report in May, for a total of 1,008, and had put all of them under vacuum. Such a move is normally one of the last steps before the machines start spinning uranium gas into the material that can be used either as reactor fuel or as the core of nuclear warheads, depending on its enrichment level.
Summarizing the progress of construction of the plutonium-producing reactor at Arak, in central Iran, the IAEA noted some advances. At the same time it cited an Iranian letter telling the agency a startup date was “not achievable, so it cannot be the first quarter of 2014.”
Iran theoretically has enough material to make several nuclear weapons. But most is enriched to fuel grade.
A smaller cache is enriched to higher levels. But the report noted this supply remained below the amount needed to realize the 20 to 25 kilograms of high-enriched uranium to make one weapon, with Iran continuing to turn most of what it makes into a form difficult to rework into weapons use.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
