Iran says building 3,000 advanced centrifuges

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Iran's Presidency Office / EPA fileA file handout picture released by presidential official website shows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inspecting the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran, 08 March 2007.By Yeganeh Torbati, ReutersDUBAI — Iran is building about 3,000  advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges, Iranian media reported on Sunday, in a  development likely to add to Western concerns about the Islamic state's disputed  nuclear program.

Iran said earlier this year that it would install the  new-generation centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central  Iran, but Sunday's reports in Iranian agencies appeared to be the first time a  specific figure had been given.

The announcement, which comes after  talks between Iran and world powers in Kazakhstan about its nuclear work ended  with an agreement to meet again, underlines Iran's continued refusal to bow to  Western pressure to curb its nuclear program.

The International Atomic  Energy Agency said in February 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty  centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the town of Natanz  in central Iran. They were not yet operating.

Iranian media on Sunday  paraphrased Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy  Organisation, as saying Iran was producing 3,000 new-generation centrifuges.

"The final production line of these centrifuges has reached an end and  soon the early generations of these centrifuges with low efficiency will be set  aside," Abbasi-Davani said in statements in the Iranian city of Isfahan on  Sunday, according to the Fars news agency.

An IAEA note informing member  states in January about Iran's plans implied Iran could install up to 3,000 or  so of the new centrifuges. Natanz is designed for tens of thousands of the  machines.

If launched successfully, such machines could enable Iran to  speed up significantly its accumulation of material that the West fears could be  used in a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is refining uranium only for peaceful  purposes.

Iran has for years been trying to develop centrifuges more  efficient than the erratic 1970s IR-1 model it now uses, but their introduction  for full-scale production has been dogged by delays and technical hurdles,  experts and diplomats say.

BUSHEHR

In his statements on Sunday  Abbasi-Davani also addressed problems at the nuclear power plant near the Gulf  city of Bushehr. The plant is not considered a major weapons proliferation risk  but recent shutdowns there have raised concerns about its safety.

In its  latest report on Iran, the IAEA said it had visited the Bushehr plant in  mid-February and that Iran then told it the reactor was shut down. No reason was  given.

The plant had previously been shut down in October 2012 and fuel  had to be unloaded. A Russian nuclear industry source told Reuters in November  the shutdown was due to the discovery of stray bolts beneath the fuel cells.

The 1,000-megawatt plant was originally started in 1975 by German  company Siemens, and Russian engineers took over the project in the 1990s.

"In the last year and a half it (the Bushehr plant) has faced problems  because of old equipment and hybrid technology from Russia and Germany,"  Abbasi-Davani was quoted as saying by Fars.

"In the last year we have  had no problem in the nuclear portion of the reactors and the outages have been  linked to the generators, because of problems in their Russian design and  resulting energy leakage."

Iran has repeatedly said the delays at  Bushehr were in part due to the need to ensure safety.

Additional  reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna

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