Iran defies UN on nuclear plants

THE Iranian government approved a plan yesterday to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities, a dramatic expansion indefiance of UN demands to halt the programme.

The decision comes only two days after the UNnuclear watchdog agency censured Iran, demanding it immediately stop building a newly revealed enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom and freeze all uranium enrichment activities.

A cabinet meeting headed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran to begin building five uranium enrichment sites that have already been studied and propose five other locations for future construction within two months.

In Vienna, spokeswoman Gillian Tudor said the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency would have no comment.

Iran has one industrial-scale uranium enrichment plant near Natanz, in central Iran. The IAEA said earlier this month that about 8,600 centrifuges had been set up in Natanz, but only about 4,000 were enriching uranium. The facility will eventually house 54,000 centrifuges. The newly revealed enrichment site, known as Fordo, is a small scale site that will house nearly 3,000 centrifuges. IRNA said the cabinet ordered that the 10 new sites have a scale equal to Natanz’s.

The US and its allies accuse Iran of secretly seeking to develop a bomb, a claim denied by Iran, which says it seeks only to generate electricity.