Iran says it plans to carry out “industrial-scale” enrichment

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Apr. 12 – Iran is planning to carry out “industrial-scale” uranium enrichment, a senior nuclear official told the government-owned news agency Mehr, a day after hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the Islamic Republic had joined the Nuclear Club. Highly enriched uranium is used in nuclear bombs. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Apr. 12 – Iran is planning to carry out “industrial-scale” uranium enrichment, a senior nuclear official told the government-owned news agency Mehr, a day after hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the Islamic Republic had joined the Nuclear Club. Highly enriched uranium is used in nuclear bombs.

Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it will install 3,000 centrifuges in its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz by the end of the year, Mohammad Saeedi, deputy chief of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said.

Saeedi said that preparatory work for the project had already begun.

He added that Iran would not have any problems in expanding its uranium enrichment to an “industrial-scale” at Natanz.

Separately, Saeedi told the official news agency IRNA that until now Iran had manufactured 110 tonnes of Uranium Hexafluoride (UF6) in its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.

The United Nations Security Council adopted a “Presidential Statement” unanimously on March 29 giving Iran 30 days to suspend all of its uranium enrichment activities and resume its cooperation with the IAEA.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei will travel to Iran on Wednesday to meet senior Iranian officials.