[New York Times] Elaine Sciolino - Iran has substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday. Iran is now running about 3,800 centrifuges, the machines that make enriched uranium, an increase of several hundred in the past four months. More significantly, it has increased the efficiency of its centrifuges to about 80% from 50%. That means the machines are processing more material, crashing less and running closer to their stated capacity. In its report, the agency charged the Iranians with continuing to stonewall about past research on designing a nuclear weapon. Last summer the agency gave Iran fixed deadlines to resolve questions about nuclear activities in the past two decades. "We seem to be at a dead end," said a senior official with links to the agency. "We would describe it as a gridlock."
2008-09-16 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive