Iran Touts More Nuclear Advances

President Reportedly Says Capacity At Key Uranium Enrichment Plant To Be Tripled

(AP)  Iran has begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, state television quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Tuesday.

Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz, and the new announcement is seen as a show of defiance of international demands to halt a nuclear program the United States and its allies say is aimed at building nuclear weapons.

"The president announced the start of the phase of installing 6,000 new centrifuges in Natanz," state television reported.

Centrifuges are machines that can enrich uranium to a low level to produce nuclear fuel or a high level for use in a weapon. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and solely focused on the production of energy.

Ahmadinejad made Tuesday's announcement as he toured the Natanz facility in central Iran. State television also quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that "other activities have been carried out" in Natanz that he would announce later Tuesday.

The president's trip was scheduled to coincide with Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, marking the second anniversary of Iran's first enrichment of uranium.

Ahmadinejad is widely expected to confirm for the first time that Iran has installed hundreds of more sophisticated centrifuges that can enrich uranium faster.

The workhorse of Iran's enrichment program is the P-1 centrifuge, which is run in cascades of 164 machines. But Iranian officials confirmed in February that they had started using the IR-2 centrifuge that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate.

Iranian state television did not say if the installation of the 6,000 new centrifuges included the older P-1 or the advanced IR-2 centrifuges.

Diplomats in Vienna told The Associated Press on Thursday that Iran has assembled hundreds of advanced centrifuges at Natanz.

One diplomat said more than 300 of the centrifuges have been linked up in two separate units in Iran's underground enrichment plant and a third was being assembled. He said the machines apparently are more advanced than the thousands already running underground, suggesting they could be the sophisticated IR-2 centrifuge.

But a senior diplomat said that while the new work appeared to include advanced centrifuges, they were not IR-2s. Both diplomats are linked to the Vienna-based International Agency for Atomic Energy, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, but asked for anonymity because their information was confidential.

A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons.

Iran says it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that ultimately will involve 54,000 centrifuges.

The U.N. has passed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend enrichment.

On Tuesday, China said it would host a meeting of officials from the five members of Security Council and Germany, as well as the EU, to discuss ways to restart negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program.

[libsrweak]

think of it this way..would you give a nation, who funds people to strap bombs on themselves and detonating it WITHOUT ANY REGARDS TO ANYTHING, the power to build nuclear bombs???

just a thought.........

[cfin5]

This guys gonna get his nation destroyed messing with Israel like he is. Syria keeps providing terrorists with Iranian rockets and arms. Israel has had just about enough according to what they said yesterday. Damascus will be obliterated and never inhabited again,.....the Book of the Lord says so.

[xalen54]

I find that Iran just wishes to improve its country for its population & I believe that their president knows it would be a bad idea to create nuclear weapons. However, if he does, then he stupid. Also they can at least get rid of the whole "Death to America" thing, its annoying & obsessive.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Iran should NOT have nuclear power. They are a rogue state that took our diplomats hostage for more than a year. This is a fanatical group and once they get a hold of a nuclear weapon, all bets are off and everything changes for the worse."

Posted by sjc_1

###

Your opinion here means exactly jack-squat. There is no evidence that Iran is attempting to build a nuclear weapon, and it is their legal right to pursue nuclear power under the nuclear NPT.

I personally consider nuclear power to be a dead-end, and would like to see it universally rejected.

[sjc_1]

Iran should NOT have nuclear power. They are a rogue state that took our diplomats hostage for more than a year. This is a fanatical group and once they get a hold of a nuclear weapon, all bets are off and everything changes for the worse.

[Renegade.Rivers]

When are you liberal morons gonna realize that Iran is a threat to not only the middle east but the reat of the world. You F**king idiots are so naive it''''s scary. let''''s wait till they drop the first one and then say ooops...

Posted by guyfrompa45

Oh yea, Iran is a real danger to us, and the rest of the world. Like we aren''t under the present regime that sits in Washington the biggest danger to the world. Whether you are a Neo-Con or a Zionist, your rhetoric is striking similar to the Nazi propaganda. You strike me as being a warmonger who lives in fear, and one of many who has been deceived by the MSM.

[hungry1968]

Iran is one country that has not been hit by TERRORISTS . Makes you kind of go . Hmmm , doesn`t it ????

Posted by wolf563 at 11:16 AM : Apr 08, 2008




MOST countries in the world HAVEN''T been hit by terrorists.

How do you figure that Iran is the "only one"?

[wolf563]

Iran is one country that has not been hit by TERRORISTS . Makes you kind of go . Hmmm , doesn`t it ????

[hungry1968]

Ahmadinejhad - to NOT BUILD ANY nuclear weapons Posted by hungry1968 Ahmadinejahd? you frigging i.diot "prison guard" uneducated b.astard!!

Posted by underdogus at 10:39 AM : Apr 08, 2008





Your ignorance doesn''t serve you very well, little boy:

"On August 9, 2005 Iran''s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam and that Iran shall never acquire these weapons."

[underdogus]

Ahmadinejhad - to NOT BUILD ANY nuclear weapons Posted by hungry1968 Ahmadinejahd? you frigging i.diot "prison guard" uneducated b.astard!!

[stn_sage]

The next administration can do what the Bush administration stupidly refused to do; that is, establish relations with Iran, open talks, and deal with them!

They are---afterall---a sovereign nation and like them or not, they deserve courtesy and respect as a sovereign nation!

The U.S. needs to revert back to the days when we tried to befriend nations instead of cultivate enemies!

[hungry1968]

ahh MR AHMADINEJAD floydZepp,hungry1968,Mcnut,FeelFree1 SUPER HERO!! what a bunch of losers.........


Posted by underdogus at 10:13 AM : Apr 08, 2008



You might want to consider legal action against the school system that graduated you without the ability to type a legible comment.

[underdogus]

ahh MR AHMADINEJAD floydZepp,hungry1968,Mcnut,FeelFree1 SUPER HERO!! what a bunch of losers.........

[hungry1968]

After all of the money, time and influence we''''ve given them they should be calling us Daddy.

Posted by jh6379 at 09:37 AM : Apr 08, 2008




After all of the money, time and influence we''ve given them, we should just annex them, and tax the living ****** out of them -- see how they like being our 51st state then.

[hungry1968]

Many American''''''''s do not consider them an ally.
Posted by jh6379 ONLY COWARDS dont consider Israel an ally.......

Posted by underdogus at 09:27 AM : Apr 08, 2008





If you want to see a coward, look at guyfrompa45''s post at 7:50 and 8:38.

"I''m afraid!! I''m afraid!! Boo Hoo!! Someone else go and invade Iran and fight them for me because I''m scared!!"

Please - you chicken hawk neo cons are the biggest cowards ever.

Notblue - how much military service do you have under your belt?

[hungry1968]

Israel should be on their own. Many American''''s do not consider them an ally.

Posted by jh6379 at 09:22 AM : Apr 08, 2008




Right on!!!

Our support of them IS what made us susceptible to terrorism in the first place.

[hungry1968]

It''''s 1938 again..SO GET READY!! IRAN is the new Germany and it''''s president Ahmadinejad the new Hitler,Iran poses a threat to the state of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear holocaust...

Posted by underdogus at 09:17 AM : Apr 08, 2008





This comment, among everything else you post, is nothing but stupid.

First of all, Iran won''t be 1938 Germany. It''s going to be 2003 Iraq. If we are stupid enough to invade, we''re going to start a holy war, we''re going to get mired down, and not find any nukes. It would be just another skid mark on America''s once unblemished history.

Secondly, Iran wants Israel to leave the land they call Palestine, so that the people that lived there peacefully for over 400 years, can move back onto their rightful homeland. Nuking Israel would make the land uninhabitable, which would defeat their own purpose.

Third, there are as many "holy sites" in Israel as there are in Mecca. There is absolutely NO WAY that they would nuke their own religious sites - ZERO CHANCE of it happening.


You really should take your zionism, and shove it. It''s blinding you to ALL logic, reasoning, and intelligence.

[underdogus]

Many American''''s do not consider them an ally.
Posted by jh6379 ONLY COWARDS dont consider Israel an ally.......

[underdogus]

It''s 1938 again..SO GET READY!! IRAN is the new Germany and it''s president Ahmadinejad the new Hitler,Iran poses a threat to the state of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear holocaust...

[grumpas]

When are you liberal morons gonna realize that Iran is a threat to not only the middle east but the reat of the world. You F**king idiots are so naive it''''''''s scary. let''''''''s wait till they drop the first one and then say ooops...

Posted by guyfrompa45

I am so sick of you fascist freaks I could scream. You have almost destroyed this country with your venom and hysteria! Is that all you people are capable of doing is worrying about Iran getting nuclear weapons? Then I realize you have been spoon fed that slop by chimpy to where you can no long think like a normal human being but a Republican clone. Nothing could be any more frightening than George W Bush with nuclear weapons. Not even Iran! So why don''t you crawl back under the rock you crawled out from under you slug??????