Iran Ignores US, UN Plans 10 New Uranium Enrichment Plants

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/29/AR2009112900992.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

 

Iran announces plans for 10 new uranium enrichment plants

By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 29, 2009 12:12 PM

TEHRAN -- Iran's government will build 10 new sites to enrich uranium, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday, a dramatic expansion of the country's nuclear program and one that is bound to fuel fears that it is attempting to produce a nuclear weapon.

Ahmadinejad told state news agency IRNA that construction of at least five nuclear facilities was to begin within two months.

The announcement comes just days after a censure of Iran by the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) over the Islamic republic's refusal to stop enriching uranium, a key demand of Western powers. The 35-member board of the agency also criticized Iran's construction of a second enrichment plant in Qom, southwest of Tehran.

Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is designed for energy production and denies it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. Ahmadinejad said Sunday that his country's need for energy would grow dramatically over the next 15 years.

"We annually must produce between 250 to 300 tons of nuclear fuel," he said.

If completed, the proposed expansion of Iran's nuclear program would give it vastly more nuclear fuel. According to a November report by the Vienna-based IAEA, Iran currently has 8,745 centrifuges to enrich uranium, but less than half of them are operational.

The United States and its allies, under an IAEA-backed plan, had recently sought to reduce Iran's nuclear stockpile by proposing that the Islamic republic ship most of its enriched uranium abroad to be fashioned into fuel for a research reactor. Iran has rejected a central element of the proposal.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the resolution passed by the board of IAEA censured Iran for a "breach of its obligation" under U.N. treaties.

"We are ready to be friendly and kind toward the whole world, but at the same time we won't allow the smallest violation of the rights of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said.

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, standing alongside the president, told reporters that the decisions of the cabinet on Sunday are a strong response to the "unacceptable actions of world powers."