Iran installs advanced centrifuges in main atom plant
Published: Thursday, April 03, 2008
IRAN-NUCLEAR-CENTRIFUGES
Vienna, April 3 (Reuters)—Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuges in its main uranium enrichment plant, accelerating activity that could give it the means to make atom bombs in future if it chooses, diplomats said on Thursday.
Iran says it wants to produce nuclear fuel only for electricity so it can export more oil. But it has been hit with three sets of United Nations sanctions for hiding the work until 2003, failing to prove to inspectors since then that it is wholly peaceful, and refusing to suspend the disputed program.
Iran launched 3,000 centrifuges, a basis for industrial scale enrichment, in the underground Natanz production hall last year. But they are a 1970s-vintage design prone to breakdown so Iran began testing an advanced version in Natanz's pilot wing.
After an installation pause of several months in the main enrichment plant, Iran has now introduced more than 300 more centrifuges, some of them improved versions and some the earlier model, Western diplomats with access to intelligence said.
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