Iran makes little headway on key N-equipment
* Tehran doubles uranium enrichment capacity in bunker
* Faster centrifuges could allow quicker atom bomb breakout
* Iranian lawmaker says report’s publication during meeting politically motivated
* Iran rejects IAEA charges over Parchin military base
VIENNA: Iran may have doubled its uranium enrichment capacity in an underground facility but it seems to be struggling to develop more efficient nuclear equipment that would shorten the time it would need for any atomic bomb bid, experts say.
Iran’s progress - or lack of it - in deploying a new generation of enrichment centrifuges is closely watched by the West as it could allow it to produce potential weapons-grade material much faster. Tehran denies this is its aim. “Iran appears to be continuing to encounter problems in its testing of production-scale cascades of advanced centrifuges,” a US think-tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), said.
Cliff Kupchan, a Middle East analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group, said: “I note that the real game-changer, the advanced centrifuge programme, still seems to be failing.” Tehran says it is refining uranium to fuel a planned network of nuclear power plants so that it can export more of its oil and gas. The United States and its allies accuse it of a covert bid to develop nuclear bombs.
Iran has sharply increased the number of centrifuges it has in the fortified Fordow bunker, a UN report said on Thursday, showing Tehran has continued to expand its nuclear programme despite Western pressure and the threat of an Israeli attack. Iranian lawmaker Kazem Jalali said the report’s publication during a meeting in Tehran of developing countries was politically motivated, the ISNA news agency reported.
The IAEA report also said buildings had been demolished and earth removed at a military site it wants to inspect. The West believes Tehran is removing evidence of illicit nuclear-linked tests, but Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said “such things can not be cleaned up or removed,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
The quarterly IAEA report may strengthen a belief in Israel - which sees Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat to its existence - that the West’s tougher economic sanctions against Tehran this year are failing to make the major oil producer curb its programme. But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report said the newly-installed machines, which are not yet operating, were all so-called IR-1 centrifuges - a 1970s-vintage model which has been prone to breakdowns in the past.
Meanwhile, Iran on Friday rejected allegations in a new International Atomic Energy Agency report that it was frustrating UN inspection of a suspect military site by apparently scrubbing it clean. “These statements have no technical basis. Anyone who has expertise in this area knows that these statements are mere pretexts and that one cannot clean a site” of nuclear work, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the ISNA news agency.
The restricted report, seen by AFP on Thursday, says the IAEA’s ability to inspect Parchin has been “significantly hampered” by the clean-up. agencies
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* Tehran doubles uranium enrichment capacity in bunker
* Faster centrifuges could allow quicker atom bomb breakout
* Iranian lawmaker says report’s publication during meeting politically motivated
* Iran rejects IAEA charges over Parchin military base
VIENNA: Iran may have doubled its uranium enrichment capacity in an underground facility but it seems to be struggling to develop more efficient nuclear equipment that would shorten the time it would need for any atomic bomb bid, experts say.
Iran’s progress - or lack of it - in deploying a new generation of enrichment centrifuges is closely watched by the West as it could allow it to produce potential weapons-grade material much faster. Tehran denies this is its aim. “Iran appears to be continuing to encounter problems in its testing of production-scale cascades of advanced centrifuges,” a US think-tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), said.
Cliff Kupchan, a Middle East analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group, said: “I note that the real game-changer, the advanced centrifuge programme, still seems to be failing.” Tehran says it is refining uranium to fuel a planned network of nuclear power plants so that it can export more of its oil and gas. The United States and its allies accuse it of a covert bid to develop nuclear bombs.
Iran has sharply increased the number of centrifuges it has in the fortified Fordow bunker, a UN report said on Thursday, showing Tehran has continued to expand its nuclear programme despite Western pressure and the threat of an Israeli attack. Iranian lawmaker Kazem Jalali said the report’s publication during a meeting in Tehran of developing countries was politically motivated, the ISNA news agency reported.
The IAEA report also said buildings had been demolished and earth removed at a military site it wants to inspect. The West believes Tehran is removing evidence of illicit nuclear-linked tests, but Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said “such things can not be cleaned up or removed,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
The quarterly IAEA report may strengthen a belief in Israel - which sees Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat to its existence - that the West’s tougher economic sanctions against Tehran this year are failing to make the major oil producer curb its programme. But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report said the newly-installed machines, which are not yet operating, were all so-called IR-1 centrifuges - a 1970s-vintage model which has been prone to breakdowns in the past.
Meanwhile, Iran on Friday rejected allegations in a new International Atomic Energy Agency report that it was frustrating UN inspection of a suspect military site by apparently scrubbing it clean. “These statements have no technical basis. Anyone who has expertise in this area knows that these statements are mere pretexts and that one cannot clean a site” of nuclear work, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the ISNA news agency.
The restricted report, seen by AFP on Thursday, says the IAEA’s ability to inspect Parchin has been “significantly hampered” by the clean-up. agencies
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