Latest, UN agency confirms Iran nuke work at underground sites U.N.
nuclear agency on Monday confirmed that Iran has begun enriching
uranium at an underground bunker to a level that can be upgraded more
quickly for use in a nuclear weapon than the nation's main enriched
stockpile.
Comment from the International Atomic Energy Agency came after
diplomats said that centrifuges at the Fordo site near Iran's holy
city of Qom are churning out uranium enriched to 20 percent. That
level is higher than the 3.5 percent being made at Iran's main
enrichment plant and can be turned into fissile warhead material
faster and with less work.
"The IAEA can confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium
enriched up to 20 percent ... in the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,"
said an agency statement, which used the alternate spelling for the
site.
Western nations condemned the move — even though it was expected, with
Tehran announcing months ago that it would use the Fordo facility for
20 percent production. Iran began to further enrich a small part of
its uranium stockpile to nearly 20 percent as of February 2010 at a
less-protected experimental site, saying it needs the higher grade
material to produce fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes medical
radioisotopes for cancer patients.
But with the time and effort reduced between making weapons-grade
uranium from the 20-percent level, the start of the Fordo operation
increases international fears that Iran is determined to move closer
to the ability to make nuclear warheads — despite insistence by the
Islamic Republic that it is enriching only to make reactor fuel.
Its dismissal of findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency of
secret experimental work on a nuclear weapons program also worries the
international community.
France warned of stinging international retribution for "this new
provocation." A Foreign Ministry statement said the move "leaves us
with no other choice but to reinforce international sanctions and to
adopt, with our European partners and all willing countries, measures
of an intensity and severity without precedent."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the "provocative act
which further undermines Iran's claims that its program is entirely
civilian in nature."
Tehran's "claim to be enriching for the Tehran Research Reactor does
not stand up to serious scrutiny," he said in a statement. Hague said
that Iran "already has sufficient enriched uranium to power the
reactor for more than five years and has not even installed the
equipment necessary to manufacture fuel elements" out of the enriched
material.
Iran recently threatened to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, an
important transit route for almost one-fifth of the oil traded
globally. Tehran also has been angered by the West's efforts to
sanction Iran over its nuclear program, including a possible ban on
European imports of Iranian oil.
Fordo's location increases concerns.
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