Iran Steps Up Enrichment Work Despite Sanctions Threat

NUKEWARS

Technical problems slow construction of nuclear plant in Iran
Moscow (AFP) Oct 25 - Technical problems have delayed the construction of the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power station in Iran, an official from the company heading the project said Wednesday. "It is clear that the reasons for the delay are technical in nature," said Sergei Shmatko, who heads the state-run company Atomstroiexport, which is building the Bushehr station, in a report by the Interfax news agency.

Last month, Russia and Iran officially agreed on a 12-month deadline for completing the controversial project, despite earlier pressure from Tehran that the station be completed in half that time. Delays have plagued the project ever since the two countries entered into an initial agreement in 1995, with US officials pressing Russia to suspend the program. The US suspects Iran of aiming to develop nuclear weapons.

Russia and China, both of which have major economic interests in Iran, have rebuffed the US pressure, while France demanded that more talks be held. In an effort to assuage Western concerns, Russia early last year secured Iran's agreement to an amendment to the Bushehr deal, requiring all spent fuel from the reactor to be returned to Russia for processing.

by Staff Writers
Tehran (AFP) Oct 25, 2006
Iran on Wednesday confirmed it has installed new equipment to step up uranium enrichment work despite the threat of UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, the official ISNA news agency reported. An official told the agency Iran has recently installed a second cascade of centrifuges at a uranium enrichment facility and would start putting gas in the equipment this week to make enriched uranium.

The announcement comes as Western countries work on a UN Security Council draft resolution that would punish Iran for its repeated refusal to halt enrichment, which the West fears could be diverted to make a nuclear bomb.

"The second cascade was installed two weeks ago and this week we are going to inject it with (uranium hexafluoride UF6) gas," the official source, which was not identified, told the agency.

"Soon after the injection of the gas we will have the product of the second cascade," the official added, referring to enriched uranium.

The United States and Western diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency had spoken of the new centrifuge cascade being developed but until now there was uncertainty over how advanced the process was.

Iran has been conducting a small-scale research enrichment programme at its plant in Natanz, in the centre of the country, where it has so far been feeding the UF6 gas into a single 164-centrifuge cascade.

Enrichment is carried out in lines of centrifuges called cascades and is used to make the fuel for civilian nuclear reactors. But in highly refined form the product can serve as the raw material for atomic weapons.

Iran's refusal to obey repeated UN deadlines to halt enrichment has left it facing the prospect of UN Security Council sanctions, with Britain, France and Germany now drawing up a draft sanctions resolution to put to the world body.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stressed on numerous occasions Iran has no intention halting its enrichment of uranium and has vowed the Islamic republic is not far from doing so on a larger scale.

Iran has plans to install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007 and wants to develop advanced P2 centrifuges capable of making highly-enriched uranium more efficiently than the P1 technology currently in use.

The country has already announced it has succeeded in enriching uranium to almost five percent, but this is still well off the levels that would be needed to make a nuclear bomb.

The European Union tried to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment in four rounds of talks which failed to find agreement.

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is solely aimed at providing energy, vehemently rejecting US accusations that it is seeking nuclear weapons.

"It is clear that Iran is moving forward, full steam ahead with its nuclear programme," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday as work gathered pace on the sanctions resolution.

According to a senior State Department official, Britain, France, Germany and the United States "are very close on the actual text of the resolution" on Iran's nuclear programme.

But it remains to be seen what stance will be taken on the draft by permanent UN Security Council members Russia and China, both economic allies of Iran and traditionally reluctant to approve sanctions.

Russia's case is particularly sensitive, as Moscow is working on building Iran's first nuclear power station in Bushehr in the south, a long-delayed project now expected to be completed in September 2007.

Iranian Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini warned earlier this week Iran would take "appropriate measures" in retaliation for any sanctions over its nuclear work.

Source: Agence France-Presse

NUKEWARS

North Holds More Mass Rallies To Celebrate The Bomb As South Confirms Test

Seoul (AFP) Oct 25, 2006
North Korea has held more mass rallies to celebrate its first nuclear test, the communist state's official media said Wednesday. Officials, soldiers, workers and students "welcomed a success in the historic nuclear test" at separate rallies in three provinces Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

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