‘Iran’s new enrichment modest’
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/02/2010 01:30

IAEA report: First batch of higher enriched uranium expected within days.
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Iran expects to produce its first batch of higher enriched uranium within a few days but its effort is modest, using only a small amount of feedstock and a fraction of its capacities, according to a confidential document, the Associated Press reported overnight Wednesday.

The internal International Atomic Energy Agency document was significant in being the first glimpse at Iran’s plan to enrich uranium to 20 percent that did not rely on statements from Iranian officials.

Iran said it wants to enrich only up to 20 percent — substantially below the 90 percent-plus level used in the fissile core of nuclear warheads — as a part of a plan to fuel its research reactor that provides medical isotopes to hundreds of thousands of Iranians undergoing cancer treatment.

But the West has said Teheran is not capable of turning the material into the fuel rods needed by the reactor. Instead it fears that Iran wants to enrich the uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Iran has denied such aspirations. But its move is viewed with concern internationally because it would create material that could then be processed into weapons-grade uranium more quickly and with less effort than Iran’s present stockpile of 3.5 percent enriched uranium.

On Wednesday, Iranian Vice President Ail Akhbar Salehi said the process of higher enrichment was going smoothly, a day after Iranian officials announced a start of the operation, but gave no details on the scope of the new activities. The restricted IAEA document, however, indicated that, for now at least, they were modest in scale.

“It should be noted that there is currently only one cascade … that is capable of enriching” up to 20 percent, said the document. A cascade is 164 centrifuges hooked up in series that spin and re-spin uranium gas to the required enrichment level.

The document, relying on onsite reports from International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, also cited Iranian experts at the enrichment site at Natanz as saying that only about 10 kilograms — 22 pounds — of low enriched uranium had been fed into the cascade for further enrichment.
Agency inspectors were told Wednesday “that it was expected that the facility would begin to produce up to 20 percent enriched … (uranium) within a few days,” said the one-page document.

Iran has over 8,000 centrifuges at its disposal, although not all are working. It has amassed about 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium.

Iran’s decision to enrich to higher levels have led to a spike in concerns about nuclear arms — and led Washington on Wednesday to impose new sanctions on several affiliates of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps over their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

The US Treasury Department announced that it would freeze assets in US jurisdictions of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Rostam Qasemi and four subsidiaries of a construction firm he commands, which was hit with US sanctions in 2007.

The sanctions expanded existing US unilateral penalties against elements of the Guard Corps, which Western intelligence believes has been spearheading Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.

David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said higher enrichment means Iran is getting a step closer to the ability to make nuclear weapons.

“Iran is slowly expanding its breakout capability,” Albright said in an e-mail to the AP. He said achieving the 20-percent level “would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium.”

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‘Iran’s new enrichment modest’

Analysis: Iran, West deceiving each other about nuke program

Iran under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty advances step by step toward military nuclear status, disguising its intentions all along the way.

In a January 31 television interview, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced out of the blue that Iran had agreed to the uranium exchange deal that it had rejected repeatedly since October 2009. This announcement came several days after it was reported that the US was deploying missile defense systems in the Gulf.

However, on Sunday, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran would begin to enrich uranium by itself, to a level of 20 percent, and that it had attained laser technology for uranium enrichment.

The Iranian daily Kayhan, which is close to Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei, even declared that once Teheran enriches uranium to 20%, the West will not be able to stop it at that level of enrichment, and would have to negotiate with Iran over higher levels of enrichment.

These developments reveal deception by both parties – Iran and the West – vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Iran under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty advanced step by step toward military nuclear status, disguising its intentions all along the way.

As for the West, it is presenting its policy as aimed at helping Iran, while its diplomatic measures, and especially the uraniumexchange deal, are really aimed at hampering Teheran’s nuclear progress. This deepens Iran’s distrust, for it understands the proposal’s real purpose.

Why won’t Iran hand over its uranium?

In the past months, Iran has adamantly rejected the proposal that the West presents as aimed at helping it by providing it with 20% enriched uranium for its research reactor in Teheran.

The reason for this refusal is that, according to the West’s intention, the uranium handed over would indeed be enriched to a higher level, but at the same time would be altered so that it could not be enriched further for military use – and this is a deal that Iran refused to accept.

In their public statements, Iran’s spokesmen do not bring up this point, but they have stated repeatedly that they do not trust the West. For example, Majlis speaker Ali Larijani warned at a February 6 conference in Teheran that the West was trying to deceive Iran with the nuclear deal but that the West should know that his country is not falling for it: “The truth is that you [Westerners] are conducting a sort of political deceit in order to separate Iran from [its] enriched uranium… But you need to know… that the Iranians are not naive.”

It should be further noted that Iran has no need for 1,200 kg. of 20%-enriched uranium, which is the quantity arbitrarily set by the West in the deal. The Teheran research reactor requires only 30 kg. of 20%-enriched uranium for its operations, and this quantity is equal to about 400 kg. of 5%-enriched uranium; furthermore, this quantity will last it until the reactor ceases to be operational, in about a decade.

Iran’s position is that if the West does indeed want only to help Iran, as it says, then Teheran does not need to enrich more than 400 kg., but the West is demanding that Iran hand over 1,200 kg., which constitutes 75% of its enriched uranium stock. This demand proves that the West wants to maintain its nuclear military hegemony and to prevent Iran from attaining military nuclear status. For this reason, Iran is adamant that it will not hand over its strategic reservesto the West.

The position presented in recent days by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki focuses on the ongoing dispute between Iran and the superpowers vis-à-vis the quantity of lower-level enriched uranium that Teheran would hand over for enrichment.

At the 46th Munich Security Conference (February 5-7), Mottaki portrayed as likely Iran’s acceptance of a deal, and said that it and the IAEA had already agreed to the nuclear deal with a third country and that all that remained was to set the time, place, and quantity of uranium that Iran would hand over. However, he stressed that “it is the Iranian side that will set the scope [of the uranium]exchange [deal], with attention to its own needs” and that “the quantity of nuclear fuel [enriched to 3.5% that Iran will agree to transport from its territory] will be in accordance with Iran’s needs, and the moment that Iran announces what this quantity is, the deal will be able to go ahead.”

Nevertheless, an Iranian official told the Iranian news agency Fars that Teheran had not changed its position toward the deal proposed at the Vienna conference, on October 19-21, 2009, despite reports in recent days about a “softer” stance being adopted vis-à-vis the proposal.

In addition, Ahmadinejad announced in an interview on Iranian television that Teheran does not oppose an uranium exchange deal outside Iranian soil, adding that circles in Iran had raised an unnecessary stink over the issue; however, he ignored the issue on which Iran and the West disagree – that is, the quantity of enriched uranium that Teheran is willing to hand over.

Ahmadinejad: I ordered 20% enrichment

At the same time, in a step typical of Iran’s nuclear policy, Ahmadinejad launched a new phase in Teheran’s struggle against the superpowers with his defiant February 7 declaration that he had already ordered the start of 20% uranium enrichment – thus obviating the need for dialogue with the West or for compliance with the nuclear deal.

At the same venue, a conference titled “Iran’s Laser Technology Achievements,” Ahmadinejad said: “I ordered the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization [Ali Akbar Salehi] to begin enriching uranium to 20%, but the path of dialogue remains open.”

He added: “Iran has attained the ability to enrich uranium using laser technology, and with this method it is possible to perform enrichment faster and more accurately, and to any [enrichment] level – but actually we do not plan to use this method.”

He continued, “Of course, if these countries [i.e. the 5+1] come to us without preconditions, the way to an exchange deal is still open.”

The next day, Salehi said that on February 9, Iran would begin to enrich uranium at 20% at the Natanz facility, and that despite its ability to enrich uranium to any level it desires, Iran preferred the option of acquiring the nuclear fuel plates from a foreign country. In addition, he declared that Iran would construct, within the year (i.e., by March 2011), 10 uranium enrichment centers.

The conservative daily Kayhan, which is close to Khamenei, even stated in a February 9 editorial that the West had missed the opportunity to stop Iran at 5% enrichment, and that the minute Iran enriches uranium to 20%, the West will not be able to stop it from advancing further. At that point, Iran will not agree to stop at 20%, and the negotiations will be over enrichment to a higher level.

It should be noted that Iran possesses 1,600 kg of 5%-enriched uranium (5% is the level permitted under IAEA regulations for generating power; the country must announce that it will be enriching it and must obtain advance approval). However, it is continuing its intensive work to enrich more uranium, even though it has no plant or nuclear reactor that requires such quantities of enriched uranium for operation. Furthermore, the Bushehr reactor, which has not yet begun operating, does not require locally enriched uranium, because under the agreement that Iran signed with Moscow in 2005, Moscow is providing the fuel rods to operate it, and Iran has been receiving them since 2007.

In these circumstances, it is very peculiar that Salehi announced that Iran will construct 10 additional uranium enrichment centers; it means that Iran can be suspected of enriching uranium for military purposes.

The West’s weakness

Again and again, the West has called on Iran to accept its ultimatums, which Iran knows are toothless; this approach exposes the West’s, and particularly the US’s and Europe’s, inability to deal with Iran on vital issues of global security and stability.

The West’s unwillingness to publicly acknowledge that the “deal” that it proposed is not really aimed at helping Iran, as it claims, but rather at preventing Iran from using the enriched uranium for military purposes, strips the West of its credibility vis-à-vis Teheran.

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Iran, West deceiving each other about nuke program

U.S. unveils offer to help Iran purchase medical isotopes

The United States and other nations seeking to restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions are offering to help the Islamic republic purchase medical isotopes on the international market, administration officials said Tuesday.

The offer, officials said, is meant to persuade Iran to halt its controversial push to produce fuel for a medical research reactor. U.S. officials say Tehran’s enrichment plan — it announced this week that it is producing higher-grade enriched uranium than ever before — is evidence that it is pursuing fuel for a bomb.

The previously undisclosed proposal came as President Obama told reporters that his administration is “developing a significant regime of sanctions” to impose on Iran. He said that action at the U.N. Security Council, which is currently stymied by China’s objections to a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, “will be one aspect of that broader effort.”

U.N. sanctions do not prohibit Iran from obtaining the medical isotopes on the open market, which is how many nations — including the United States — get them for medical purposes.

“Rather than operate a reactor, this would be a more cost-effective and efficient approach,” one U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. There are a handful of key producers around the world, including Russia.

Obama, during a news conference at the White House, said Iran appeared to have spurned his offers of engagement, including a potential deal to convert some of Iran’s low-enriched uranium into the fuel necessary to keep an aged research reactor producing medical isotopes for an estimated 850,000 patients.

“I think that we have bent over backwards to say to the Islamic Republic of Iran that we are willing to have a constructive conversation,” he said. But, he added, “the door’s still open.”

Iran initially agreed in October to the fuel-swap proposal, but then for weeks sent conflicting signals about the proposed arrangement. The Americans had viewed the idea as both a confidence-building measure and an effort to remove the bulk of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium from its soil.

“They rejected it, although one of the difficulties in dealing with Iran over the last several months is it’s not always clear who’s speaking on behalf of the government, and we get a lot of different mixed signals,” Obama said.

Last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly announced that Iran was again interested in the swap concept, but days later he ordered Iranian scientists to begin production of the higher-enriched uranium. The conversion is taking place at a pilot facility, and Iran lacks the technical knowledge to convert the more highly enriched uranium into the specialized fuel rods needed for the reactor.

“That indicates to us that despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for civilian use, that they, in fact, continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization,” Obama said.

Iran has viewed production of its own isotopes as a source of pride, which might make it reluctant to buy them from abroad. Indeed, the Obama administration’s new offer might be intended mostly to placate China that it is trying every diplomatic approach.

Some analysts faulted the administration for first pursuing the swap offer, arguing that it opened the door for Iran to go after higher levels of enrichment. “They should have started with isotopes,” said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington. “Going to something sensible after you’ve promised something stupid and generous is a hard sell.”

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