TEHRAN, Iran --Iran said Monday it is installing 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at one of its nuclear facilities, effectively confirming that its nuclear program is running behind schedule as the devices were to have been in place two weeks ago.
Over the weekend, Iran dismissed reports from Europe that its uranium enrichment program had been stalled. Enriched uranium is used as fuel in nuclear reactors and, at a higher degree of enrichment, can also be used to make atomic bombs.
But Iran had said the installation of the 3,000 centrifuges at its facility in Natanz, located in central Iran, would be completed by the end of 2006. Its failure to do so has prompted reports that it is encountering technical difficulties in mastering large-scale enrichment.
Diplomats in Vienna -- where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based -- said Thursday that the enrichment program in Natanz had ground to a halt.
The diplomats said that suggests possible Iranian hesitancy to provoke U.N. Security Council sanctions harsher than the relatively mild penalties agreed on last month in response to Tehran's refusal to heed a council deadline to suspend enrichment.
Or, they said, it could be a sign of headway by relative moderates in the leadership unhappy with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's confrontational manner.
Some diplomats accredited or otherwise linked to the IAEA said some intelligence services believed the Natanz site could also be a front. While attention is focused on Natanz, Iranian scientists and military personnel could be working on a secret enrichment program at one or more unknown sites that is much more advanced, the diplomats said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity in exchange for discussing restricted information.
Other signs point to technical difficulties at Iran's nuclear facilities. Earlier this month, Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told reporters that about 50 centrifuges had exploded during a test.
"We had installed 50 centrifuges. One night, I was informed that all the 50 centrifuges had exploded. ... Ahmadinejad called me and said: 'Build these machines even if they explode 10 times more,'" Aghazadeh was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Iran has condemned the U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on it, and said it would move ahead with its nuclear program. Last month, Ahmadinejad boasted that Iran would soon celebrate, probably in February, the completion of its nuclear fuel cycle -- the processing of uranium from mining the ore to enriching it.
"We are moving toward the production of nuclear fuel, which requires 3,000 centrifuges and more than this figure," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference. "This program is being carried out and moving toward completion."
The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of trying to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran denies this, saying its program is only for generating electricity. Tehran says that as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, it has the right to develop a peaceful uranium enrichment program to produce nuclear power.
The IAEA has said it has found no evidence that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, but it has criticized the country for concealing certain nuclear activities and failing to answer questions about the program.
Iran first showed its ability to enrich uranium in February, when it produced a small batch of low-enriched uranium using a first set of 164 centrifuges at its pilot complex in Natanz.
Iran said it planned to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment involving 3,000 centrifuges, then expand the program to 54,000 centrifuges, which spin uranium gas into enriched material to produce nuclear fuel.
"We had installed 50 centrifuges. One night, I was informed that all the 50 centrifuges had exploded. ... Ahmadinejad called me and said: 'Build these machines even if they explode 10 times more,'" Aghazadeh was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Once again: I called it.
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
darthkommandant wrote:Im not sure if I am the only one thinking this but when I envision the centrifuges exploding I almost hear the 1812 overture in the backround.
Allah have spoken, Iran isn't supposed to have nukes!
I thought Roman candles meant they were imported. - Kelly Bundy
12 yards long, two lanes wide it's 65 tons of American pride, Canyonero! - Simpsons
Support the KKK environmental program - keep the Arctic white!
Apparently high speed (90,000 rpm) centrifuges have critical bands of rpm in which they are very prone to faults, you have to carefully nurse them past those bands and then they'll run fine. If you dont know where the bands are or you aren't careful, kaboom.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
MKSheppard wrote:Not surprising, the iranians are new at this.
Apparently high speed (90,000 rpm) centrifuges have critical bands of rpm in which they are very prone to faults, you have to carefully nurse them past those bands and then they'll run fine. If you dont know where the bands are or you aren't careful, kaboom.
Worse, Iranian Uranium is not very good, or at least, their refining is shit. Throw in that their whole facility is made from half a set of plans from the Chinese, and this shouldn't surprise.
You can't really have room for error with something approaching 90 kRPM. It tilts a bit and kiss the contents of the room goodbye as bits fly everywhere.
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
America shouldn't attack Iran they should give them the materials to built millions of these, why bother destroying your enemy yourself when they can do it for you.
.....and those who are prideful and refuse to bow down shall be layed low and made unto dust.
General Schatten wrote:If we give them the materials that means they can use the money they were going to use for materials to refine the technology quicker.
So we sell them the materials. For oil. Everybody(well in the U.S. anyway) wins.
[Kodos]The Iranians won't stop here. They will build bigger centrifuges with higher RPMs, until one day they build a centrifuge so big it will destroy them all.[/Kodos]
I thought Roman candles meant they were imported. - Kelly Bundy
12 yards long, two lanes wide it's 65 tons of American pride, Canyonero! - Simpsons
Support the KKK environmental program - keep the Arctic white!
