Iran seems extremely determined about this.
source:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041119/D86F15DO2.htmlDiplomats: Iran Is Readying Nuke Processes
Nov 19, 10:35 AM (ET)
By GEORGE JAHN
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran is using the last few days before it must stop all uranium enrichment to produce significant quantities of a gas that can be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Friday.
Iran recently started producing uranium hexafluoride at its gas processing facilities in Isfahan, the diplomats told The Associated Press. When introduced into centrifuges and spun, the substance can be enriched into weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads.
Iran last week agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all related activities in a deal worked out with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. The deal, which takes effect Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas processing activities.
But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tehran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce uranium hexafluoride at its Isfahan plant in central Iran.
Asked about quantities, one diplomat said "it's not little," but he declined to elaborate.
Iran has huge reserves of raw uranium and has announced plans to extract more than 40 tons a year.
That amount, converted to uranium hexafluoride and repeatedly spun in centrifuges, theoretically could yield more than 200 pounds of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, enough for about five crude nuclear weapons.
Iranian officials say the Isfahan plant can convert more than 300 tons of uranium ore a year.
Iran is not prohibited from making uranium hexafluoride until the deal takes force. But its decision to carry out uranium processing right up to the freeze deadline was expected to disappoint the Europeans - and give the United States ammunition in its push to have the U.N. Security Council examine Tehran's nuclear activities.
Washington says Iran wants to enrich uranium to make weapons. Tehran says it is interested only in low-grade enriched uranium for nuclear power.
Iran announced suspension of enrichment last week, and the agency said it would police that commitment starting next week, ahead of the Nov. 25 IAEA board meeting.
Although the deal commits Iran to suspension only while a comprehensive aid agreement with the EU is finalized, the pledge reduced Washington's hopes of having the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency refer Iran to the Security Council when the board meets Thursday.
By opting to freeze - and not scrap - the program, Tehran has not dropped plans to run 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for what it says will be the fuel requirements of a nuclear reactor to be finished next year.
It currently possesses less than 1,000 centrifuges. But even with 1,500 centrifuges, experts say, Iran would be able to make enough weapons-grade uranium for about a bomb a year.
Iran, meanwhile, dismissed as "baseless" remarks by Secretary of State Colin Powell on its nuclear program, adding he should review his intelligence sources.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was reacting to Powell's comments on claims by the Iranian dissident group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, which alleged that Tehran was secretly running a program intended to produce nuclear weapons by next year.
Powell said Wednesday he had seen intelligence that partially confirmed the claim, including some indicating that Iran "had been actively working on delivery systems" for a nuclear weapon.
"There is no place for weapons of mass destruction in Iran's defense doctrine," Asefi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Asefi suggested that U.S. officials "reconsider their intelligence sources."
On Thursday, Asefi dismissed the claims of the Iranian dissident group, which the United States and the European Union consider to be a terrorist organization.
"The claims are raised to destroy the positive atmosphere that resulted from the Paris agreement," Asefi said, referring to last week's accord on suspending uranium enrichment activities in return for British, French and German guarantees that Iran has the right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.
Asefi said Friday that Powell's claims were "indicative of U.S. anger over Iran's process of confidence-building and transparency" in its nuclear program, the official news agency reported.
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