Iran making new model centrifuges named IR3 and IR4

new model centrifuges

TEHRAN, Iran’s nuclear chief said Friday the country has started making more efficient centrifuge models that it plans to put in use by early 2011 – a statement that underscores Tehran’s defiance and adds to international concerns over its nuclear ambitions.The official, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iranian scientists are still testing the more advanced models before they will become operational at the country’s enrichment facilities.Tehran has been saying since April that it is building more advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium with higher efficiency and precision, but Salehi’s remarks were the first indication of a timeline when the new models could become operational.

The new centrifuge models will be able to enrich uranium much faster than the old ones – which would add to growing concerns in the West because they would allow Tehran to accelerate the pace of its program. That would mean Iran could amass more material in a shorter space of time that could be turned into the fissile core of missiles, should Tehran choose to do so.

Iran’s uranium enrichment is a major concern to the international community, worried that the program masks efforts to make a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists its enrichment work is peaceful and only meant to generate electricity, not make an atomic bomb.

Iran has threatened to expand its enrichment program tenfold, even while rejecting a plan brokered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to supply fuel for Iran’s research reactor if Tehran exports most of its enriched stockpile. The U.N. plan would leave Iran – at least temporarily – without enough uranium to produce a bomb.

Centrifuges are machines used to enrich uranium – a technology that can produce fuel for power plants or materials for a nuclear weapon. Uranium enriched to low level is used to produce fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building nuclear arms.

“We are currently producing new generation of centrifuges named IR3 and IR4,” Salehi told the semiofficial Fars news agency. “We hope to use them by early 2011 after resolving problems and defects.”He did not elaborate on the technical details or the difference between various centrifuge types.However, Salehi added: “We are not in a rush to enter the industrial-scale production stage.”

The new centrifuges would likely replace the decades-old P-1 centrifuges, once acquired on the black market and in use at Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran.

Iran has said the new centrifuges would also be installed at Iran’s recently revealed secret uranium enrichment facility. The plant is still under construction at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom.

Salehi said that more than 6,000 centrifuges are currently enriching uranium – 2,000 more than the figure mentioned in a November report by the U.N. watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA has reported that it is watching Iran’s efforts to improve its centrifuges.Iran says it will install more than 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz, but currently they have installed fewer than 9,000, so there could easily be room for more advanced models in the future, a Vienna nuclear expert said. The expert spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Iranian officials have claimed that most parts for the new centrifuges are made domestically and others have been imported – a sign that Iran was able to get around U.N. sanctions imposed on the country for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.Iran’s defiance has not wavered amid recent signals of possible more U.N. sanctions over its enrichment. Salehi said Friday such new sanctions won’t stop Iran from developing its nuclear program.

“We don’t welcome new (U.N. Security Council) resolutions,” he told ISNA, another semiofficial news agency. “But resolutions won’t stop us in any field, including the nuclear.”

Manochehr Mottaki said :Iran agrees to nuclear fuel swap, with caveats

Manouchehr Mottaki

MANAMA, Bahrain  Iran is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods – as proposed by the U.N. – but according to its own mechanisms and timetable, the foreign minister said Saturday.The minister’s remarks come just days before an expected meeting between the U.S. and allies to discuss new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The offer, however, falls far short of the conditions set by the international community.Speaking to reporters at a regional security conference in Bahrain, Manochehr Mottaki said Iran agreed with a U.N. deal proposed in October in which up to 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of its uranium would be exchanged for fuel rods to power its research reactor.

“We accepted the proposal in principle,” he said through a translator. “We suggested in the first phase we give you 400 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched uranium and you give us the equivalent in 20 percent uranium.”Iran has about 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium and needs to refine to 20 percent to operate a research reactor that produces medical isotopes.

Uranium enriched at low levels can be used as fuel for nuclear energy, but when enriched to 90 percent and above, it can be used as material for a weapon. The United States and five other world powers have been trying to win Iran’s acceptance of a deal under which Tehran would ship most of its low-enriched uranium stockpile abroad to be processed into fuel rods, which can’t be enriched further.

The deal would leave Iran – at least temporarily – without enough enriched uranium to produce a bomb. However, after signaling in October that it would accept the proposal, Iran has since balked, giving mixed signals over the deal, including several statements from lawmakers rejecting it outright.Mottaki maintained, however, that a clear proposal had been given involving the simultaneous exchange of uranium for fuel rods in stages.”We gave a clear answer and we responded and our answer was we accepted in principle but there were differences in the mechanism,” he said, suggesting the exchange take place on Iran’s Kish island, in the Persian Gulf.

It is not clear, however, if the low-enriched uranium would then remain on the island or could be shipped out of the country – a necessary condition to any deal from the standpoint of the international community.The world powers are also unlikely to accept a long drawn out exchange in stages, as it would allow Iran to maintain enough enriched uranium inside the country to possibly build a weapon.Iran, meanwhile, wants to receive the fuel rods immediately in exchange for its uranium for fear that France or Russia could renege deal.

Last month, the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency endorsed a resolution from the six powers – the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – criticizing Iran for defying a U.N. Security Council ban on uranium enrichment and continuing to expand its operations.It also censured Iran for secretly building a second facility and demanded that it immediately suspend further construction.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said last month that the U.N. offer has been “comprehensively rejected” by Iran. A diplomat from one of the six powers said Wednesday that America’s Western allies were waiting for Washington to formally declare the wait for an Iranian response over, probably by the end of this month.The six countries are expected to meet next week to discuss what action to take over Iran.EU leaders said they would support further U.N. sanctions unless Tehran starts cooperating over its nuclear program.

1,200 kilograms of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods

uranium

Iran’s foreign minister says the country is ready to swap up to 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods), as proposed by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Manochehr Mottaki told reporters in Bahrain Saturday that Iran suggested exchanging 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of its enriched uranium on Kish island in the initial phase.

The International Atomic Energy Agency proposed in October Iran ship out its 3.5 percent enriched uranium to be further refined by France and Russia into fuel rods for a research reactor.

The U.S. and its allies fear Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at making a bomb, while Tehran maintains it’s for peaceful purposes.Mottaki said Iran agreed with the deal in principle, there were only differences over the mechanisms of the swap.

Iran plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants

Iran announced earlier today that it plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants. Iranian media reported that the Cabinet approved the construction of the plants just two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) censured Iran for its nuclear activities.The proposed facilities, reported to be similar to Iran’s main nuclear plant at Natanz, would vastly increase the nation’s capacity to produce enriched uranium. Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying that Iran should get to the point where it can produce 250 to 300 tons of nuclear fuel each year.”We should reach a position where we can produce from 250–300 tonnes of nuclear fuel a year. To do this we must employ new centrifuges with a higher speed,” he commented.Ahmadinejad said the new Iranian-designed centrifuges used to enrich uranium will have higher speeds than those currently being used. He added that Iran “is not joking around with anyone” when it comes to defending its nuclear rights.

The announcement seems to make good on a warning earlier in the day that pressure on Iran would force it to reduce its cooperation with the IAEA. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said western pressure may force parliament to review the country’s stance toward the UN nuclear agency.Iranian Members of Parliament said that “we consider the behaviour of the IAEA to be that of double standards and political. We want it to give up this double standard which has tarnished its reputation.”

The five-plus-one group of nations working on the Iran nuclear issue – the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany – all voted Friday for the IAEA censure of Iran for defying international demands to freeze uranium enrichment and for secretly building a nuclear facility. The move appeared to take many officials in Tehran by surprise.The tensions coincide with problems over an IAEA proposal to send Iran’s uranium abroad for enrichment, part of a plan to ease some concerns that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying that the programme is for civilian purposes only. The country has offered counter-proposals to the deal, but the IAEA has not accepted any of them.An unnamed US official said that “if [the plant construction is] carried out, [it] would constitute yet another violation of Iran’s continuing obligation of suspension of all enrichment-related activities. There remains a fleeting opportunity for Iran to engage with the international community, if only it would make that choice.”

the IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei criticized Iran for hiding its efforts to build a uranium

The members of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is expected to vote Friday on a draft condemning Iran’s nuclear activities, while the Western countries suspect the country is developing nuclear weapons.The diplomats from the United States, England, France, Germany, Russia and China proposed that the draft UN resolution demanding that Iran halt uranium processing building where previously secret and asks Iran confirm that Iran has no other hidden nuclear activities.The IAEA board of commissioners consisting of 35 countries, which met in Vienna on Thursday, is expected to continue to debate and vote on the draft last Friday. If agreed, the draft will be the first act of the IAEA on Iran since 2006.Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, warned on Thursday that Iran would not cooperate with the IAEA if the resolution is approved.In a meeting Thursday, the IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei criticized Iran for hiding its efforts to build a uranium processing near the city of Qom to early September. ElBaradei also said his investigation of allegations that Iran has tried to make nuclear weapons had reached a dead end street, because Tehran does not want to cooperate.