Iran Has Enriched Uranium for First Time

TEHRAN - AP- Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said Tuesday that Iran has enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges, a major development in nuclear fuel cycle technology, news agencies reported.

Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a major development in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani said Tuesday.

Current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added that the country "will soon join the club of countries with nuclear technology."

The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all uranium enrichment activity by April 28. Iran has rejected the demand, saying it has a right to develop the process.

The comments by the Iranian officials came as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, was due to visit Tehran this week for talks on the nuclear standoff.

Officials with his International Atomic Energy Agency have said he is hoping to win at least partial concessions from Iran. IAEA inspectors are currently in Iran visiting two key facilities.

Speaking to a crowd in northeastern Iran, Ahmadinejad was quoted by state television as saying, "Enemies can't dissuade the Iranian nation from the path of progress that it has chosen."

Ahmadinejad had been expected to announce the successful uranium enrichment Tuesday in a nationally televised speech. But Rafsanjani — head of the powerful Expediency Council, a key governing body — released the news first in an interview with the Kuwait News Agency in Tehran. Soon after, the Expediency Council confirmed the announcement.

It was the first disclosure that Iran had successfully enriched uranium since February, when it began research at its enrichment facility in the town of Natanz.

Rafsanjani did not say how much uranium was enriched through the facility's 164 centrifuges, but he said it would put the country in a good position for ElBaradei's visit.

"When ElBaradei arrives in Iran, he will face new circumstances," Rafsanjani said, according to KUNA.

"Iran has put into operation the first unit of 164 centrifuges, has injected (uranium) gas and has reached industrial production," he was quoted as saying.

"We should expand the work of these machines to achieve a full industrial line. We need dozens of these units (sets of 164 centrifuges) to achieve a uranium enrichment facility," he said.

Enriching uranium to a low level produces fuel for nuclear reactors. To a higher level, it produces the material for a nuclear bomb.

Iran would require thousands of operating centrifuges to produce enough uranium for either purpose.

Once the unit of 164 centrifuges is up and running, however, its scientists can work to perfect the technology for larger scale production.

The resumption of work at Natanz prompted the IAEA to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council — escalating the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The United States and some in Europe accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran denies, saying it intends only to generate electricity.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told The Associated Press that the announcements by the Iranian officials "shows that they're not paying any attention to what the Security Council has said because they're clearly continuing with their enrichment activities if this statement is true."

"And it shows why we feel a sense of urgency here that we have to have Iran realize the mistaken course it's pursuing," he said.

In Vienna, IAEA officials declined to comment on the report. A diplomat familiar with Tehran's enrichment program said the report appeared to be accurate. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss information restricted to the agency.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office recalled that Iran was under Security Council orders to "resume full and sustained suspension of all its enrichment."

"The latest Iranian statement is not particularly helpful," the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with government policy.

On Monday, Tehran shrugged off reports that the United States is drawing backup plans for military action against Iran over its nuclear activities, saying they were an attempt to scare it into halting its program and warning any attack would bring a "suitable response."

Several American media reports over the weekend said the Bush administration was studying options for military strikes against Iran to stop its nuclear program. The New Yorker magazine raised the possibility of using atomic bombs against Iran's underground nuclear sites.

President Bush said Monday the reports were "wild speculation." He said his vow to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons "doesn't mean force necessarily. In this case it means diplomacy."

But the White House was not ruling out a military response and said "normal defense and intelligence planning" was under way.

Kamal Daneshyar, head of Energy Committee at the Iranian parliament, said the announcement means Iran has mastered the technical hurdles needed to enrich uranium to the degree required for reactor fuel.

"This is a major achievement. It means Iran is now able to produce nuclear fuel for its future nuclear reactors without any reliance on foreigners," he told the AP.

The enrichment process is one of the most difficult steps in developing a nuclear program. It requires a complicated plumbing network of pipes connecting centrifuges that can operate for months or years.

The process aims to produce a gas high with an increased percentage of uranium-235, the isotope needed for nuclear fission, which is much rarer than the more prevalent isotope uranium 238.

A gas made from raw uranium is pumped into a centrifuge, which spins, causing a small portion of the heavier uranium-238 to drop away. The gas then procedes to other centrifuges — perhaps thousands of them — where the process is repeated, increasing the proportion of uranium-235.

The enrichment process can take years to produce a gas rich enough in uranium-235 that it can be used to power a nuclear reactor or produce a bomb.