Iran Moves To Double Uranium Enrichment

Iran expanded its controversial nuclear program by injecting gas into a second network of centrifuges to enrich uranium, a semiofficial news agency reported Friday.

The news came as world powers worked on a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would impose limited sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease enrichment — a process that can produce material for nuclear power reactors, or weapons.

The Iranian Students News Agency quoted an anonymous official on Friday as saying that Iran has begun injecting gas into a second cascade of centrifuges and had obtained successful enrichment results.

"We are injecting gas into the second cascade, which we installed two weeks ago," the anonymous official was quoted by ISNA as saying. "We have already exploited the product of the second cascade," said the official, implying that engineers had succeeded in the enrichment process.

Iranian authorities are believed to leak information to ISNA which they want published but consider too sensitive for the official media.

The report could not be immediately corroborated as Iranian officials were on holiday for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Neither the official Islamic Republic News Agency nor state television and radio carried the report by ISNA, an agency that receives state funding via the national universities.

Diplomats in Vienna said this week that Iran has started its second cascade of centrifuges in Natanz. The move violates a resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. watchdog group that has required that Iran cease all enrichment-related activity.

Iran produced a small batch of enriched uranium in February from a cascade of 164 centrifuges at its nuclear plant at Natanz in central Iran. Iran says it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz by the end of this year.

Production of enough uranium to fuel a reactor would require 54,000 centrifuges. Although Iran is nowhere near that goal, its successful operation of more cascades of centrifuges indicates the country is gradually mastering the complexities of producing enriched uranium.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday his country's nuclear capability had increased tenfold despite Western pressure to curb its atomic program.

"The enemies, resorting to propaganda, want to block us from achieving (nuclear technology). But they should know that today, the capability of our nation has multiplied tenfold over the same period last year," Ahmadinejad said.

The United States accuses Iran of secretly trying to build an atomic bomb under the guise of a civilian nuclear program. But Iran denies this, saying its program is strictly for the generation of electricity. The country ignored an Aug. 31 deadline to cease enrichment.

The U.S. and its European allies are circulating a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would ban the sale of missile and nuclear technology to Iran and deny the country certain assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is "no choice" but to pursue sanctions against Iran after Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

"It is regrettable that Iran has not yet responded to any of the demands of the international community," Merkel said during a speech in Berlin. "For that reason, we had no choice but to pursue sanctions in the U.N. Security Council."

China and Russia, which can veto Security Council resolutions, reportedly are pushing for continued dialogue with Iran instead of punishment.