Iran Ready to Run Second Set of Uranium Centrifuges

Iran has finished building a second “cascade” of uranium enrichment centrifuges and could begin processing uranium within days, the top U.N. nuclear official said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 23).

“Based on our most recent inspections, the second centrifuge cascade is in place and ready to go,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

So far, no uranium has been introduced into the system, but that could begin as soon as next week, ElBaradei told the New York Times during a visit to Washington (see related GSN story, today).

Iran’s first cascade, a 164-centrifuge system, has enriched uranium to levels needed for nuclear power plant fuel (see GSN, April 12).  Even doubling this capacity would still require years of effort before Iran could produce enough material for a nuclear weapon, the Times reported.  Ultimately, Iran plans to construct a facility with tens of thousands of centrifuges.

ElBaradei did not support the U.S. contention that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons.  However, agency officials have said they believe Iran is trying to develop all the components of a nuclear weapon so that it could build one rapidly if it chose to, the Times reported (David Sanger, New York Times, Oct. 24).

While Iran has not yet enriched any uranium in the new cascade, technicians have tested the equipment recently, apparently after waiting to see if talks with the European Union would yield progress toward a long-term solution to the nuclear crisis, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 30).

Iran’s persistence with its nuclear development has produced results, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday.

“The enemies, resorting to propaganda, want to block us from achieving (nuclear technology),” he told a crowd outside Tehran.  “But they should know that today, the capability of our nation has multiplied tenfold over the same period last year” (George Jahn, Associated Press/USA Today, Oct. 24).

Meanwhile, U.S., British and French diplomats conferred yesterday to try to finish drafting a U.N. Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for its failure to heed a council demand to freeze its sensitive nuclear activities.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there was “widespread agreement, although not total agreement” among the three permanent council members to find language that could be endorsed by China and Russia, both of which have expressed strong concern or opposition to punishing Iran (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Oct. 24).

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