Iran announces plan to enrich uranium on a massive scale

IRAN intends to enrich uranium on a scale hundreds of times larger than its current level, the country's deputy nuclear chief said yesterday.

The move signals Iran's resolve to expand a programme the international community insists it halt.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran for the first time had succeeded on a small scale in enriching uranium, a key step in generating fuel for a reactor or fissile material for a bomb. The UN Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all enrichment activity because of suspicions that the programme's aim is to make weapons.

Iran's small-scale enrichment used 164 centrifuges, which spin uranium gas to increase its proportion of the isotope needed for the nuclear fission at the heart of a nuclear reactor or a bomb.

Saeedi said Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at its facility in the central town of Natanz by late 2006, then expand to 54,000 centrifuges, though he did not say when.

"We will expand uranium enrichment to industrial scale at Natanz," Deputy Nuclear Chief Mohammad Saeedi told state-run television.

Saeedi said using 54,000 centrifuges will be able to produce enough enriched uranium to provide fuel for a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant like one Russia is finishing in southern Iran. In theory, that many centrifuges could be used to develop the material needed for hundreds of nuclear warheads, if Iran can perfect the techniques for producing the highly enriched uranium needed.

Iran, which has made no secret of its plans ultimately to expand enrichment to around 50,000 centrifuges to fuel reactors, is still thought to be years away from a full-scale programme. Still, concerns grew Tuesday when Ahmadinejad announced Iran's enrichment success in a nationally televised ceremony, saying the country's nuclear ambitions are peaceful and warning the West that trying to force Iran to abandon enrichment would "cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians."

The IAEA is due to report to the Security Council on April 28 whether Iran has met its demand for a full halt to uranium enrichment. If Tehran has not complied, the council will consider the next step. The US and Europe are pressing for sanctions, a step Russia and China have so far opposed. Iran's announcement quickly drew condemnations. Russia criticised the announcement, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin saying, "We believe that this step is wrong."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow's firm opposition to any military action against Iran.

Denouncing Iran's successful enrichment of uranium as unacceptable to the international community, Secretary of State Conodoleezza Rice said the UN Security Council must consider "strong steps" to induce Tehran to change course.

Rice also telephoned IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to ask him to reinforce demands that Iran comply with its nonproliferation requirements when he holds talks in Tehran on Friday.

"This is not a question of Iran's right to civil nuclear power," she said. "This is a question of ... the world does not believe that Iran should have the capability and the technology that could lead to a nuclear weapon."