"We have 6,000 centrifuges working and we plan to increase them. In the next five years we plan to have 50,000 centrifuges," Atomic Energy Organisation Gholam Reza Aghazdeh told reporters.

He was speaking at a press conference in the Gulf port of Bushehr where Iran began testing its first nuclear power plant, which has been built by Russia.

In November, Aghazdeh said that Iran was operating more than 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges at its facility in Natanz.

Last week, the UN's atomic watchdog said in a report that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium, a process potentially used to make an atom bomb, but has slowed down the expansion of its activities.

"Contrary to the decisions of the Security Council, Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities," the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in its latest report on Tehran's contested nuclear drive.

Enrichment is at the heart of Western fears that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons as it can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the fissile core of an atom bomb.

The report by the IAEA, which has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for six years, said there were 3,964 centrifuges actively enriching uranium in Natanz, just 164 more than in November.

On top of those, a further 1,476 centrifuges were undergoing vacuum or dry run tests without nuclear material and an additional 125 had been installed but remained stationary.

Iran vehemently denies it has nuclear weapons ambitions and has defied five UN Security Council resolutions calling for a freeze in enrichment activities, including three imposing sanctions.

earlier related report
Iran's first nuclear plant: A history of delays
Iran's first nuclear power plant, which was undergoing tests on Wednesday after construction was completed by Russia, has been delayed for more than three decades.

Iran and Russia are expected to also announce a date for the actual launch of the plant at the Gulf port of Bushehr in southern Iran but is likely to still be months away.

Fuel delivered by Russia for the plant remains under the seal of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for six years.

The Bushehr project was first launched by the US-backed shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in the 1970s using contractors from German company Siemens.

But it was shelved when the shah was ousted during the 1979 Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The unfinished power station lay forgotten in the humid port city throughout the 1980s as the Islamic republic battled internal opposition and the 1980-1988 war against Iraq.

But the project was revived after Khomeini's death in 1989 with backign from the new supreme leader Ali Khamenei and then president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Throughout the early 1990s, Iran searched for help to revive the project, especially after receiving a blunt refusal from its erstwhile partner Siemens which was worried about nuclear proliferation risks.

Despite being the world's number four crude oil producer and having the second largest gas reserves, Iran insists it needs nuclear power to sustain a growing population whose fossil fuels will run out in the next decades.

Finally in 1994, Iran found a partner in Russia which also agreed to fuel the plant as well as complete the construction, with the supply deal committing Iran to returning any spent material.

The deal was finally signed in January 1995 after 18 months of tenuous negotiations and numerous preliminary accords.

But that was just the start of a new history of delays and setbacks, as the Russian contractor was repeatedly forced to postpone completion of the plant and the despatch of fuel.

At one time in 2007, Russian contractor Atomstroiexport even accused Iran of falling behind in its payments, further putting its completion in jeopardy.

Iranian officials feared Moscow was actually playing for time to avoid the ire of the United States, which is leading the campaign against Tehran's nuclear drive.

After a series of tit-for-tat accusations, the two sides agreed to resolve all disputes delaying Bushehr's construction and finalised a timetable for its completion.

Then Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the delays largely on "old worn-out equipment" initially installed by Siemens engineers.

In the last two years the project has also suffered from the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, which the West believes is a cover for efforts to build atomic weapons -- charges vehemently denied by Tehran.

The IAEA, in its latest report on Iran this month, said it has been informed by Tehran that the loading of fuel into the reactor is scheduled to take place only during the second quarter of 2009.

The finished power station will have a pressurised water reactor with a power of 1,000 megawatts which requires a fuel of enriched uranium.

It was being constructed by more than 2,000 Russian engineers and workers who live in a purpose-built village near the power station.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News