[Reuters/Ha'aretz] The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said on Thursday that Iran was continuing to amass the raw material for uranium enrichment. Aghazadeh said Iran had now stockpiled 250 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), the feedstock that is injected into centrifuges for enrichment into fuel. Mark Fitzpatrick, nuclear non-proliferation analyst at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said 250 tons of UF6, if enriched to 90% or higher, would yield enough fuel for up to 50 nuclear warheads. Iran has so far enriched token amounts of UF6 only to 3-5%. Iran's parliament passed a bill last week obliging the government to accelerate its nuclear work.
2008-01-28 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive