Iran orders boost to nuclear programme
Updated on 08 February 2010
As Iran's atomic energy organisation starts work on producing higher-grade nuclear fuel, the country says it plans to build 10 new enrichment facilities during the next year.
Iran's atomic energy chief announced the facilities yesterday in comments likely to further increase tension with the west.
The statement by Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday evening comes after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier in the day instructed Iran's atomic energy organisation to start work on producing higher-grade nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor.
Iran's announcement raised the stakes in its dispute with the West, but Ahmadinejad said talks were still possible on a nuclear swap offer by world powers designed to allay fears the Islamic republic is making an atomic bomb.
Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organisation, also on Sunday said Iran would start producing uranium enriched to a level of 20 per cent on Tuesday, in the presence of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He said Iran will formally inform the UN agency about the move, taking place at the Natanz site, in a letter on Monday, Iran's Arabic-language television station al Alam reported.
But Salehi also suggested production would be halted if Iran received fuel enriched to 20 per cent from abroad.
Iran has expressed readiness to exchange its low-enriched uranium for higher-grade fuel, but wants amendments to the UN-drafted plan.
"Iran would halt its enrichment process for the Tehran research reactor any time it receives the necessary fuel for it," Salehi said.
Lindsey Hilsum writes -
Today's announcement placates the hardliners within the regime who like to blow loud public raspberries to the US and Europe.
Adding in a few missile launches keeps them happy and shows the internal opposition - the biggest threat - that the government is powerful and determined.
So maybe that's the main thing. Later this week, Green Movement protesters will be out on the streets demonstrating against the government on the 31st Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
All these contradictory nuclear pronouncements distract international
attention from the regime's biggest worry – its own divisions and weaknesses in
the face of continued unrest by the opposition.
