Iran furthers nuclear plans

Iran has converted a few tons of raw uranium into hexafluoride gas needed for enrichment, a necessary step towards producing nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons, a top nuclear official said today.

Uranium hexafluoride gas is the material that, in the next stage, is fed into centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Uranium enriched to low level is used to produce nuclear fuel to generate electricity and enriched further can be used to manufacture an atomic bomb.

Iran said last month it had started converting about 40 tons of raw uranium being mined for enrichment.

It maintains its intentions are peaceful energy purposes.

“We have converted part of the raw uranium we had and produced a few tons of uranium hexafluoride gas,” Hossein Mousavian said.

He would not specify how much. A few tons of raw uranium would be converted into about the same amount of hexafluoride gas.