Iran: We've enriched uranium to 20% purity
Move underscores Tehran's determination to push ahead with its nuclear program despite new international sanctions.
By Reuters Tags: Iran Iran nuclear Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Israel newsIran has enriched 17 kg of uranium to 20 percent purity, a top official said on Wednesday, underscoring Tehran's determination to push ahead with its
nuclear program despite new international sanctions.
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Technicians measuring parts of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant in this undated photo. |
| Photo by: AP |
Iran's enrichment activities are at the heart of its standoff with the West which fears it is seeking nuclear weapons capability. Two weeks ago, the United Nations Security Council agreed to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran.
Iran started refining uranium to 20 percent purity -- up from around 5 percent -- in February, saying it aimed to make fuel for a medical research reactor.
The move -- a significant step towards making weapons-grade uranium, which is 90 percent enriched -- has alarmed the West.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and primarily aimed at electricity generation.
"We have already produced 17 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium, and we have the ability to produce 5 kg each month but we do not rush," Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
"We do not want to produce anything which we do not need and we don't want to convert all our uranium reserves to 20 percent enriched uranium, so we produce 20 percent of enriched uranium according to our needs."
Salehi told Reuters in February that the Tehran medical reactor required around 1.5 kg of fuel per month. By early April Iran had produced 5.7 kg, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.
Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London told Reuters that around 200 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium, if further enriched, would be required to make a nuclear bomb.
Iran had hoped to avoid the latest sanctions by offering to send some of its low enriched uranium (LEU) abroad in return for higher grade fuel -- enriched elsewhere -- for the Tehran reactor, which makes isotopes for treating cancer.
That offer, brokered in May by Turkey and Brazil, revived a deal struck with major powers in October, but Western diplomats said the fuel swap was no longer meaningful as Iran had increased its LEU stockpile considerably in the meantime.
Saheli said the test phase of third generation centrifuges -- unveiled by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a ceremony in April -- was nearly completed and that work on a fourth generation was under way.
The centrifuges Iran uses now to enrich uranium are adapted from a 1970s design and have been prone to breakdowns.
Western analysts say Iran has exaggerated progress in the past to bolster domestic pride about its nuclear program and to improve its bargaining position with major powers.
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Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation conference at the UN May 3, 2010. |
| Photo by: Reuters |
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The DPRK have announced that they are building a Hydrogen Bomb. Of course high radiation levels were discovered on the border with S.Korea. Then of course its all games. They cannot play football, neither can Iran, so Iran now has made another great show. Remember how Mr.Saddam Hussein suckered the world into believing he had a nuclear program with all sorts of delivery systems.? Soon enough somebody is going to follow up with a shock an awe in both countries. For the world is now sick and tired of this continuous BS. The worlds economy needs mending, social unrest in the West is most certain once all these new ill advised economic belt tightening tactics begin to brace the populace. One day people will come out of their misery and ask, "Who was Iran"? Why did North Korea vanish? Good day.
Simply restating the same old propaganda is pointless. Its all circumstantial. With the level of 'intelligence' in the West, we haven't been able to prove anything in the past except that when you make up evidence as the CIA did in Iraq, a lot of people die.
Lets put things in perspective when it comes to enriched uranium that Iran is producint. According to the Washington Post of May 2, 2010, Iran has produced so far 2 tons---4000 lbs---of uranium enriched to 4.5-5% or industrial use strength. Thus far, according to this Ha’aretz article, Iraq has produced only 37 lbs of uranium enriched to 20% for use, ostensibly, in medical reactors. This means that Iran’s 20% enriched uranium amounts to the staggering total of 0.00925 of its total supply of enriched uranium!
from now on iranian turks and syrians will celebrate their birthdays with yellow cakes and the stupid world is watching anna dina jade making nukes
If Israel has nukes, why not Iran or Syria? I am for a nuclear-free ME, but to let one country off the hook while punishing the others is hypocritical.