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The Iranian parliament in Tehran - Source: Reuters -
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Iran says it will start producing higher-grade nuclear fuel and add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year in a nuclear expansion sure to stoke tensions with the West.
The statement by Iran's nuclear agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday followed orders from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for work to start on producing atomic fuel for a Tehran research reactor.
The announcement raises the stakes in Iran's dispute with the West, although analysts doubt Iran has the technical ability to launch 10 new plants so soon and believe Iran is finding it harder to obtain crucial components due to UN sanctions.
Analysts say the move may be a negotiating tactic to prod the West into accepting Iranian terms for a nuclear fuel swap.
But it could also backfire if it only serves to make Western powers determined to push for more sanctions against Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, over its refusal to suspend enrichment.
"Iran will set up 10 uranium enrichment centres next year," Iran's Arabic-language television station al Alam quoted Salehi as saying.
The Iranian year starts on March 21. Iran mooted such a plan late last year but gave no time frame.
Ahmadinejad also said Iran remained open to a proposed nuclear fuel exchange with world powers, which they hope would minimize the risk of Iran developing atomic bombs. Iran says it wants only to generate electricity from low-level enrichment.
Salehi said Iran would start to raise the enrichment level from 3.5% to 20% on Tuesday, in the presence of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He said Iran would formally notify the Vienna-based UN agency about the move in a letter on Monday, al Alam reported. He earlier said production would take place at the Natanz site.
But Salehi also suggested production would be halted if Iran could import fuel enriched to 20%, the degree of purity required for conversion into special fuel needed to run a Tehran nuclear medicine reactor, Iran's stated goal for the move.
Tehran has also voiced readiness to send low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad in a swap for fuel for the reactor, due to run out of it later this year. Such a deal would remove the bulk of potential nuclear bomb material Iran has stockpiled.
But amendments Iran has demanded to the UN-drafted plan have been rejected by the United States, France and Russia because they would allow Iran to keep much of its LEU reserve.
"Iran would halt its enrichment process for the Tehran research reactor any time it receives the necessary fuel for it," Salehi said.
Germany said on Monday Iran's announced intention to crank up nuclear work showed it was not cooperating with the IAEA, which has also called for a nuclear suspension and closer inspections.
Turmoil
Ahmadinejad's contradictory signals over the last week - first expressing readiness to send low-enriched uranium abroad and then announcing that Iran would start producing 20% fuel itself - may also be a sign of Iran's political turmoil.
Analysts believe Ahmadinejad may want to secure a swap deal with the international community to boost his legitimacy after a disputed election last year but is hampered by political rivals who oppose any LEU export as a threat to national security.
Iran's move to make 20% fuel itself may heighten suspicions that its real aim is higher-enriched uranium for atom bombs, since only France and Argentina - not Iran - are known to have the technology to yield fuel for medical isotopes.
A senior diplomat close to the IAEA said enrichment to 20% was legal under Iran's non-proliferation accord with the agency. Higher enrichment would mean higher verification requirements, he said.
"Natanz would need less than a few months to start making the 20% enriched uranium, (although) Iran will face significant technical hurdles in manufacturing it," said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security.
The bigger question was whether Iran planned to make a small amount of enriched uranium for its research reactor or was trying to convert most of its 3.5% stock of enriched uranium into 20% material.
"By doing so, it would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium," Albright said.
Mark Fitzpatrick, a proliferation expert at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the plan for 10 more enrichment sites in short order was "a farcical bluff".
"Iran presumably could start construction by pushing dirt around for 10 new facilities, but there is no way it could being to construct and equip that many more plants. It is hard-pressed today even to keep the centrifuges installed at Natanz running smoothly," Fitzpatrick said.
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