Iran unveils 'uranium enrichment advances'

Iran unveils 'uranium enrichment advances'

Claimed breakthrough likely to further unsettle US and EU who believe Tehran is attempting to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran has made advances in its nuclear programme, building new uranium enrichment centrifuges and producing its own nuclear reactor fuel plates, state television says.

The claimed breakthrough, which was confirmed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, on Wednesday, is likely to further unsettle the US and allies who believe Iran is attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran has added 3,000 more centrifuges to its uranium enrichment effort, Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast on state television as he unveiled progress in his country's controversial nuclear programme.

"Approximately 6,000 centrifuges were working, 3,000 have been added to that amount. Now there are 9,000," he said.

Iran has developed "fourth generation centrifuges" made of carbon fibre that are "speedier, produce less waste and occupy less space" as they spin at supersonic speeds to purify uranium, according to Wednesday's announcement.

Iran also created its own 20 per cent fuel plates for a research reactor in the capital, Tehran, whose stock of fuel, sourced from Argentina in the 1990s, is running low, the report said.

State television also said that Iran had made progress in 20 per cent uranium enrichment at its Natanz facility, beyond enrichment activities already under way there.

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said state television showed Ahmadinejad, Atomic Energy Organisation head Fereydoon Abassi Davani and other officials all dressed in white coats inside the reactor, watching a metal-encased rod being inserted into the facility's pool.

"This is a huge achievement for the Iranian people because these fuel rods are actually produced domestically. It is the first batch that have been transferred to any of the facilities to start work on medical isotopes," she said.

Iran's letter to EU

Iran earlier replied to a letter sent nearly four months ago by Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, proposing a resumption of stalled talks with world powers on its nuclear programme, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The letter, written by chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and handed to Ashton's office, reads: "Iran welcomes the readiness of the P5+1 group to return to negotiations in order to take fundamental steps toward further co-operation."

The P5+1 consists of the five permanent UN Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - plus non-permanent member Germany.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for exclusively peaceful, civilian purposes.

Unprecedentedly tough US and EU economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran in recent weeks and months, in an attempt to push it to halt its nuclear programme.

In response, Tehran has threatened to retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the main Gulf oil shipping lane.

The UN nuclear watchdog expressed strong suspicions in November that Iran's programme had a military component.

It is to send a high-level delegation back to Iran next week to discuss concerns, after inconclusive talks in Tehran late last month.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies