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Iran Uranium at Level to Fuel Reactors NewsMax.com Wires TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's nuclear chief said Wednesday that Iran has enriched uranium up to 4.8 percent - the upper end of the range needed to make fuel for reactors - as it continues to defy U.S. and European demands to stop enrichment.
The announcement by nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh tops Iran's declaration last month that it had surpassed the 3.6 percent purity level. Uranium enriched to between 3.5 and 5 percent is used to make fuel for reactors to generate electricity.
Enriched to more than 90 percent, it becomes suitable for use in nuclear weapons. Aghazadeh added that Iran has no intention of enriching uranium beyond 5 percent.
International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna, Austria, said they had no information about the claim. The agency - whose inspection powers have been curtailed in recent months by Iran - said in a report sent to the U.N. Security Council on Friday that Iran's claim to have enriched small amounts to a level of 3.6 percent appeared to be true according to initial analysis of samples it took. Story Continues Below
Wednesday's announcement, if true, is significant because it shows that Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of the Security Council, which asked Tehran last month to cease all such activity because of fears it could be misused to make nuclear arms.
European nations, backed by the United States, outlined a planned Security Council resolution in Paris on Tuesday to give "mandatory force" to the atomic watchdog agency's demands that Iran halt uranium enrichment.
While the resolution does not call for sanctions, that is likely to be the next step sought by the United States, Britain and France if Iran refuses to stop enriching uranium.
Still, Russia and China, veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, remained firmly opposed to a resolution that could pave the way for sanctions if Tehran refuses to end uranium enrichment.
The Security Council is scheduled to discuss the Iran nuclear issue on Wednesday.
Aghazadeh also said Wednesday that Iran had discovered uranium deposits in southern Iran near the port city of Bandar Abbas, a day after Iranian officials said they had found uranium ore at three new sites in the center of the country.
Iran announced April 11 that it had enriched uranium for the first time. Tehran says its nuclear program is confined to generating power, but the United States and France accuse the country of secretly trying to build nuclear weapons.
Mohammad Ghannadi, deputy chief for nuclear research and technology, told a conference Tuesday in Qom, Iran, that the country's political leadership had ordered him to ensure that enrichment did not go beyond 5 percent.
"We need enriched uranium to produce electricity ... we have been given orders to enrich uranium only up to 5 percent," he said.
Enrichment is a highly difficult process that takes gas produced from raw uranium and aims to increase its proportion of the uranium-235 isotope, needed for nuclear fission.
The gas is pumped into a centrifuge, which spins, causing a small portion of the heavier, more prevalent uranium-238 isotope to drop away. The gas then proceeds to other centrifuges - thousands of them - where the process is repeated, increasing the proportion of uranium-235.
Enrichment typically starts out with a gas that is 0.7 percent uranium-235. It must be boosted to between 3.5 and 5 percent to produce fuel for a reactor.
Aghazadeh, who is also the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said Iran was planning vast investments to extract uranium from its newly discovered deposits.
"Experts at the (Iran's) Atomic Energy Organization are making plans to identify the country's uranium reserves. It is predicted that we will have vast investments in various parts of the country," he said.
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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