Iran may resume uranium enrichment

Iran’s top nuclear official said today that his country would announce in the coming days whether it would resume uranium enrichment activities that had been questioned by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Hasan Rohani did not say explicitly that Iran would resume enriching uranium, but he said the country believed activities related to enrichment at the nuclear plants at Arak and Isfahan were “legal.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday had questioned work at those two plants. The IAEA has been under pressure to crack down on what the United States says is Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Iran says its nuclear activities are only for peaceful purposes.

“The work at Isfahan and Arak is not up for bargaining,” Rohani said. “Iran has already made its decision about Isfahan and Arak and the work will continue.”

Iran is building a heavy water reactor at Arak, and its plant at Isfahan, which has already been opened, has a nuclear conversion facility to process yellow cake uranium into gas.

Rohani referred to the process of injecting gas into centrifuges as a major step in uranium enrichment.

“It’s not clear whether we will inject gas into centrifuges tomorrow,” he said. “Perhaps we may continue suspension ... for some time, but we’ll reconsider other measures. In the next few days we will inform the IAEA and our European partners of our decision.”