Iran has claimed several achievements that appear to
constitute the completion of the nuclear fuel cycle.
Officials said Teheran has manufactured
uranium sufficiently enriched for use in nuclear power reactors and would
soon launch full-scale production. This would make Iran one of eight
countries capable of uranium enrichment.
"I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those
countries which have nuclear technology," Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.
Officials said Iran has begun operations of a significant number of
centrifuges for uranium enrichment, Middle East Newsline reported.
In an assertion supported by Western diplomats, Iranian officials said
that on April 9 Teheran began enriching uranium to a level of 3.5 percent
at a pilot facility in Natanz. They said the level was sufficient to produce
fuel for nuclear reactors. Uranium must be enriched to 90 percent for
weapons production.
"I declare here that the laboratory-scale nuclear fuel cycle has been
completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the
degree for nuclear power plants on Sunday [April 9]," Ahmadinejad said.
"Based on international regulations, we will continue our path until we
achieve
production of industrial-scale enrichment."
"I am proud to announce that we have started enriching uranium to the
3.5 percent level," Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Gholamreza
Aghazadeh said. "So far, we have produced 110 tons of UF6."
UF6, uranium hexafluoride, is employed as the feedstock gas for enriched
uranium produced in centrifuges.
Aghazadeh said Iran plans to employ 3,000 centrifuges for
industrial-scale nuclear fuel production by March 2007, which could result
in the production of enough enriched uranium for a single nuclear warhead
within the following year. He also said Iran intended to complete its heavy
water reactor in Arak by 2009. Heavy water is a critical element in the
production of plutonium.
Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the
regime-aligned Expediency Council, said Iran has launched the operation of a
cascade of centrifuges to enrich uranium. Rafsanjani said Iran has
succeeding in employing a cascade of 164 centrifuges.
"We operated the first unit, which comprises 164 centrifuges,"
Rafsanjani told the official
Kuwaiti news agency. "Gas was injected, and we achieved industrial output."
"There must be an expansion of operations if we are to have a complete
industrial unit," Rafsanjani said. "Tens of units are required to establish
a uranium enrichment plant."
Western diplomats said the Iranian claims matched findings by the Atomic
Energy Agency over the last month. They said that in March the agency
reported the preparation of a cascade of 164 centrigues at Natanz and the
testing of 20 such machines.
The flurry of announcements preceded Wednesday's visit by IAEA
director-general Mohammed El Baradei to Iran. The IAEA has referred the
Iranian nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council for possible
sanctions.
