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Iran said it launched an effort today to prepare low-enriched uranium from its stockpile for use at a medical research reactor in Tehran, a process that could help the nation prepare weapon-grade uranium in a possible drive to acquire nuclear arms, the Los Angeles Times reported (see GSN, Feb. 5).
(Feb. 9) -
Iran said it began work today to further refine low-enriched uranium at its Natanz facility, shown in 2007 (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images).
It was not immediately known whether enrichment was yet under way or whether Iran was still preparing for production.
"The enrichment of uranium up to 20 percent does not mean the doors are closed to interaction and negotiations for fuel exchange," said Ali Akbar Salehi, who leads the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization. "In case our adversary parties in the negotiations show wisdom and stop killing time, the Islamic Republic will be ready to go ahead with interaction" (Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times I, Feb. 10).
The announcement came one week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to express openness to a U.N. proposal calling on other countries to refine much of Iran's uranium for use in the medical reactor. Tehran has officially opposed the bulk uranium transfer called for under the U.N. plan, which sought to defer the Middle Eastern state's ability to fuel a bomb long enough to more fully address the nuclear standoff.
Tehran, which has maintained that its nuclear intentions are strictly peaceful, has only formally offered to give up small quantities of its low-enriched uranium at a time in simultaneous exchanges for pre-enriched medical reactor fuel.
"Until now, we have not received any response to our positive logical and technical proposal. We cannot leave hospitals and patients desperately waiting for [medical] radio isotopes," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Associated Press (George Jahn, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Feb. 8).
If the United States and its allies provide Iran with fuel for the medical reactor, Tehran would end work to refine its own nuclear material to the 20-percent enrichment level required for use at the site, Salehi said yesterday.
"Whenever they provide the fuel, we will halt production of 20 percent [uranium]," AP quoted him as saying on Iranian state television (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press II, Feb. 8).
Salehi added that Iran planned next month to start work on 10 new nuclear fuel sites, the Times reported (Daragahi/Barnes, Los Angeles Times II, Feb. 9).
Iran is technically capable of producing fuel for the medical site at its existing Natanz uranium enrichment complex, but the nation could not prepare 10 new uranium enrichment facilities "anytime soon," according to an analysis by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
"Iran has not stated how it intends to produce this enriched uranium at Natanz," the report notes, adding that "approximately half of Iran’s 8,000 installed centrifuges are not currently operating and could be dedicated to this effort."
The nation would face difficulties in preparing the uranium, once enriched, for use at the medical reactor, the group said. "Iran will likely use knowledge gained from abroad to make the fuel," the analysis states.
It was uncertain, though, whether the nation was capable of beginning the work today, the document's authors said (Institute for Science and International Security release, Feb. 8). Preparing the uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz for the task could take several months, and existing sanctions on Iran could complicate the nation's efforts to acquire needed equipment, analysts told Reuters (Derakhshi/Dahl, Reuters I, Feb. 9).
"This is worrying because it’s another small step up the escalation ladder," Arms Control Association head Daryl Kimball told the Christian Science Monitor. "What we have to keep in perspective is that Iran is still a number of years and a lot of technical expertise away from building a nuclear weapon. But what’s disconcerting is that they keep chipping away at those limitations" (Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 8).
Washington issued a cautionary response to Iran's announcement that it would continue enriching uranium, Reuters reported.
"This announcement is a provocative move in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The Iranian government knows that this will not meet the humanitarian needs of the Iranian people, and risks creating more regional instability," one high-level Obama administration official said (Reuters II, Feb. 8).
Russia echoed Washington's alarm, even though Moscow previously played down some Western concerns about Iran's nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported.
"Iran claims it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons," Russian national security council chief Nikolai Patrushev said, according to Russian media. "But actions such as starting to enrich low-enriched uranium up to 20 percent raise doubts in other countries and these doubts are fairly well-grounded" (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Feb. 9).
Iran should face punitive measures for its actions, said Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Russian Duma's foreign affairs committee.
"The international community should swiftly react to the news in order to send Tehran a new signal of its intent to react with serious measures, right up to a strengthening of economic sanctions," a spokeswoman quoted Kosachyov as saying, according to Reuters (Reuters III/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Feb. 8).
Washington hopes within weeks to adopt a fourth U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Fox News.
"It is always a negotiating process and we're just at the beginning of it," Gates said. "It's going to take some period of time; I would say weeks, not months, to see if we can't get another U.N. Security Council resolution" (Adam Entous, Reuters IV, Feb. 9).
"[Gates] thinks that we need it and that we can do it in that time. In all his meetings he discussed this sense of urgency," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell added today, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Feb. 9).
Still, representatives of the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany failed to reach consensus over new economic penalties during a telephone conference on the subject on Friday, the Washington Post reported (Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, Feb. 7).
China today reaffirmed its demand for the international community to rely on dialogue in seeking a resolution to the nuclear dispute. Like the other permanent Security Council member nations, China wields veto authority over all of the body's decisions (Darakhshi/Dahl, Reuters I).
In addition, Moscow indicated that additional sanctions should be limited in scope, Post reported Sunday.
"If in the future, hypothetically, if new sanctions are imposed, we are sure that sanctions should be limited to nonproliferation only and not be expanded to cultural, humanitarian, economic parts of Iranian activity," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said (Whitlock, Washington Post).
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday confirmed Iran's announcement that it would further enrich uranium from its stockpile.
"IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano noted with concern this decision, as it may affect, in particular, ongoing international efforts to ensure the availability of nuclear fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor," the agency said in a statement. "The director general reiterated the agency´s readiness to play an intermediary role on the issue of the Tehran Research Reactor" (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Feb. 8).
"I can confirm that officials are there in Natanz today" to monitor the new uranium enrichment activity, AFP quoted an IAEA spokesman as saying. "What they find and assess will be reported to the board," the official said (Agence France-Presse III/Spacewar.com, Feb. 9).
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki held a meeting with Amano.
"Our meeting covered a variety of areas. That included of course ... Iran and the Tehran research reactor. We had a very interesting discussion ... There was not a new proposal. We exchanged views," Amano said.
Mottaki suggested the sides could agree on a new nuclear deal "in the near future."
"We discussed and exchanged views about a wide range of issues ... We also exchanged views about the proposal that is on the table. I tried to explain the views of the Islamic republic of Iran for the director general," Mottaki said, adding that a nuclear agreement "would be a way out of the present conditions" (Simon Sturdee, Agence France-Presse IV/Google News, Feb. 9).
Gates, though, expressed doubt Saturday about Tehran's willingness to bargain with other countries, the Post reported.
"The reality is that they have done nothing to reassure the international community that they are prepared to ... stop their progress toward making a nuclear weapon," he said (Whitlock, Washington Post).
"If the international community will stand together and bring pressure to bear on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work," the Defense Department quoted him as saying. "But we must all work together" (U.S. Defense Department release, Feb. 7).
"No U.S. president has reached out more sincerely, and frankly taken more political risk, in an effort to try to create an opening for engagement for Iran. All these initiatives have been rejected," AP later quoted Gates as saying (Jahn, AP I).
"We must still try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue. The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track but it will require all of the international community to work together," he said yesterday (Adam Entous, Reuters V, Feb. 8).
Elsewhere, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is expected to travel to Tehran next week in a bid to advance negotiations over Iran's nuclear work, AFP reported today.
"The [U.N. uranium transfer] proposal is still valid. ... We believe there is still an important chance" to resolve the dispute, the official said (Agence France-Presse V/Spacewar.com, Feb. 9).
On Sunday, Iran announced plans to hold an international meeting in April or May on anti-WMD efforts, the nation's Islamic Republic News Agency reported (Islamic Republic News Agency, Feb. 7).