Iran close to industrial nuclear use

Iran is now operating 4,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant, a top official said today, moving the country's controversial nuclear program further out of the experimental stage onto an industrial level. Deputy foreign minister Ali Reza Sheikh Attar told the IRNA news agency following his Aug 19 visit that Iran was also preparing to install further centrifuges at the enrichment plant in Natanz, central Iran. "Right now, nearly 4,000 centrifuges are operating at Natanz enrichment plant," Mr Attar said. "Currently, 3,000 other centrifuges are being installed."

Uranium is enriched into nuclear fuel by the centrifuges to power nuclear energy plants. The same process, however, can be used to produce the fuel for nuclear weapons - the reason cited by a US-led group of countries as they push for Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Tehran, however, has repeatedly refused to do. Iran has defended its right to continue with its nuclear energy programme, and according to a government official it's ready to share its nuclear technology with Nigeria to help the energy-starved west African powerhouse boost electricity generation.

Junior trade minister Mohammadali Zeyghami made the comments late yesterday after three days of talks between officials of the two oil-producing nations. A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment programme that is past the experimental stage. By reaching 4,000, the programme is moving into an industrial-scale program that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons. Experts, however, say Iran would need to change the way centrifuges are operating to actually produce weapons-grade uranium, something that would be difficult since the Natanz facility is under video surveillance by the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA.

Negotiations are underway with five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany to halt Iran's uranium enrichment program or at least maintain it at the current level in exchange for a package of incentives. Last month, however, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicated that negotiations had come up with a deal whereby the enrichment program could continue as long as it was not expanded beyond 6,000 centrifuges.

A report by the UN's nuclear monitoring agency that was delivered to the UN Security Council in May said Iran had 3,500 centrifuges, though a senior UN official said at the time that Iran's goal of 6,000 machines running by the summer was "pretty much plausible."

* AP