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Iran Continues Producing Uranium Gas
Iran has produced “a few tons” of uranium hexafluoride gas, a senior official said today, confirming Tehran’s defiance of last month’s International Atomic Energy Agency resolution demanding the suspension of all uranium enrichment activities (see GSN, Oct. 5). “Out of the 37 tons of yellowcake, a few tons has been used and converted,” Hossein Mousavian, Iran’s chief IAEA delegate, told Agence France-Presse. He was referring to 37 tons of raw uranium that Iran had previously said it would convert into uranium hexafluoride (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Oct. 6). The gas is a critical part in the process of enriching uranium, which the United States and its allies fear could be used for nuclear weapons. Mousavian said the conversion process was done under IAEA supervision, the Associated Press reported. “Every stage of the process is under full IAEA supervision. The agency knows of every milligram of uranium converted,” he said (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Skagit Daily Herald, Oct. 6). A diplomat said today that the U.N. agency was aware that Iran began processing uranium more than a week ago, Reuters reported. The agency has installed monitoring cameras at the Isfahan uranium conversion facility to oversee the production of uranium hexafluoride and to ensure that materials are not diverted for weapons activities, Reuters reported. “The uranium conversion is being conducted under the supervision of the IAEA,” said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Oct. 6). Iran intends to resume uranium enrichment within months, a top Iranian lawmaker told AFP. Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy and national security commission, spoke as parliament began working on legislation requiring the resumption of uranium enrichment. “Why should we not resume enrichment?” he said yesterday. “Where in the [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] and in the Additional Protocol does it say that enrichment is forbidden and therefore it should be stopped? It is our natural right” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Oct. 6).
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