Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Diplomats: Iran starts upgrade of nuclear site

Mike L. 
IAEA inspectors touring Natanz nuclear plant see some 100 advanced enriching centrifuges. Analyst: West should consider 'rolling back some sanctions' if it wants Iran to respond

In a disheartening signal to world powers at upcoming Iran talks, Tehran has started installing high-tech machines at its main uranium enrichment site that are capable of accelerating production of reactor fuel and - with further upgrading - the core of nuclear warheads, diplomats said Wednesday.

Iran already announced last week that it had begun mounting the new enriching centrifuges, but one diplomat said at the time that the announcement was premature with only a "small number" on site and not yet installed.

Diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday, however, that installation was now well on its way, with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency seeing close to 100 or more machines mounted when they toured the site a few days ago. Depending on experts' estimates, the new-generation centrifuges can enrich uranium three to five times faster than Iran's present working model.

The Islamic Republic insists it is not working on a nuclear weapons program, but rather is enriching uranium only to make reactor fuel and for scientific and medical purposes - as allowed by international law.
Obama will not prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weaponry.

Of that you can be certain.
 

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