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Inspectors Cite Big Gain by Iran on Nuclear Fuel

[New York Times] David E. Sanger - Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency's top officials. In a short-notice inspection of Iran's main nuclear facility at Natanz on Sunday, conducted in advance of a report to the UN Security Council due early next week, the inspectors found that Iranian engineers were already using roughly 1,300 centrifuges and were producing fuel suitable for nuclear reactors, according to diplomats and nuclear experts. "They are at the stage where they are doing one cascade a week," said one diplomat familiar with the analysis of Iran's activities. A cascade has 164 centrifuges, and experts say that at this pace, Iran could have 3,000 centrifuges operating by June - enough, if the uranium were enriched further, to make one bomb's worth of nuclear material every year. Tehran may, the diplomat said, be able to build an additional 5,000 centrifuges by the end of the year, for a total of 8,000.
2007-05-15 01:00:00
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