Iran Begins Installing Advanced Centrifuges

Iran is installing a proprietary advanced centrifuge at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7).

Dubbed the IR-2, the new centrifuge model incorporates Iranian innovations into the P-2 design that originated in Pakistan, U.S. and European officials have said.

The IR-2 is “more ingenious” than the P-1 centrifuge, the older, less reliable Pakistani machine that Iran’s uranium enrichment program has relied on to date, said a high-level European nuclear official.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in April 2006 that the upgraded model would boost Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity fourfold.

The International Atomic Energy Agency Development is expected to address the IR-2 centrifuges in a report later this month on Tehran’s disclosure of details about its nuclear program, officials said.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is intended only to produce electricity, but Tehran has been widely suspected of seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

By operating 1,200 IR-2 centrifuges for one year, Iran could produce enough highly enriched uranium to use in a nuclear bomb, according to a fact sheet released yesterday by the Institute for Science and International Security.  

It is unclear if Iran has enough components to mass produce the machines, the report said, suggesting the United States and other nations could prevent Tehran from operating a useful quantity of the centrifuges by blocking the shipment of parts.

The Bush administration referred to the new centrifuges to argue that the U.N. Security Council should impose additional sanctions against Iran, despite a recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusion that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

“If the reports are true, Iran is ramping up its enrichment activities, and this is just a demonstration that they continue to ignore the U.N. Security Council,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.  “The recent NIE indicated that enrichment activity could be used for nuclear weapons purposes, and the international community is united that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

“The key question is whether this would speed up the day when they could have a breakout capability — the ability to make a small arsenal,” said Gary Samore, a proliferation expert at the Council on Foreign Relations (Sanger/Broad, New York Times, Feb.8).

Iran’s development of the new centrifuge would increase international tensions with Tehran over its nuclear program, the U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said today.

“Any Iranian attempt at a more advanced centrifuge would be an escalation of Iran's ongoing noncompliance with its obligation to suspend all enrichment-related activities,” Gregory Schulte told Agence France-Presse.

Schulte said the development of the centrifuge would constitute a “further violation of Iran's international commitments, further reason why we are concerned about the nature of Iran's nuclear program and the intentions of its leaders, and further reason for the Security Council to act.”

The ambassador said the United States is waiting for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to report on the details Iran has provided on its development of the centrifuge.  The agency and Iranian IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh have not offered any comment.

“While we have no information on the technical nature of any new Iranian centrifuge, we assume the purpose of testing is to increase Iran’s potential enrichment capacity,” the U.S. envoy said.

“The IAEA and the U.N. Security Council have been absolutely clear that Iran needs to suspend” uranium enrichment, Schulte said.  “Instead, it is rushing to develop new enrichment technology.  This seriously undermines confidence at a time Iran should be doing as much as possible to restore it, given the real lack of confidence that exists.”

Another Western diplomat agreed that development of the centrifuge would make it more difficult to defuse the international standoff over Iran’s nuclear program (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Feb. 8).

Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador to Russia said today that his nation is constructing a second nuclear power plant, Reuters reported.

“Now we need to think about the fuel for it,” ITAR-Tass quoted Gholamreza Ansari as saying (Reuters, Feb. 8).

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Iran yesterday to take new steps to prove that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

“There has not been a positive commitment” yet from Iran, Merkel said, adding that Tehran must cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog to address international suspicions about its nuclear intentions.

Merkel made the statement after meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

“We don’t want to see Iran attacked, but at the same time we don’t want to see Iran in possession of a nuclear bomb,” Sheikh Mohammed said. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/Earth Times, Feb. 7).

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