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Iran will enrich uranium further if talks fail
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 10 - 10 - 2009


Iran warned Saturday it will enrich
uranium to a higher level needed to power a research
reactor if talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and world
powers fail to help Iran obtain the fuel from abroad, AP reported.
Such a step would heighten tensions in the standoff over
Iran's nuclear program that are already running high over
last month's revelation that the country is building a
second enrichment facility.
The United States and its partners in the negotiations
want Tehran to send some of its low enriched uranium to
Russia to further process the material for use in a medical
research reactor in the Iranian capital.
Enrichment is a central concern because the technology can
be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants and research
reactors at low levels or atomic weapons at high levels.
Having the higher-level enrichment carried out abroad would
be an important confidence-building step that could help
ease Western concerns that Iran is seeking to use its
civilian nuclear work as a cover for weapons development.
It would also be a long-sought compromise because Iran has
repeatedly refused to involve an outside country, insisting
it has the right to a full domestic enrichment program that
it maintains is only for peaceful purposes such as energy
production.
Ali Shirzadian, spokesman for the Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran, told The Associated Press Saturday
that Iran will proceed to enrich its uranium to the higher
level of about 20 percent needed for the Tehran reactor if
no deal is reached in talks on Oct. 19 in Vienna.
That is still well below the 90 percent level of
enrichment needed for nuclear weapons, but it would
generate significant concern for the nations trying to
persuade Iran to limit its enrichment program. So far, Iran
has produced about a ton of uranium enriched to less than 5
percent.
Shirzadian said Iran will need up to 660 pounds (300
kilograms) of the more enriched uranium to keep the Tehran
reactor running for another 10 to 15 years. He said the
facility _ which Iran says is used for medical and
scientific research _ only has enough fuel to run for
another year and a half.
The more than 30-year-old five-megawatt reactor was built
by the Americans before the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled
the pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought
hard-line clerics to power.
Shirzadian said Iran is open to discussing various
proposals on the issue at the meeting in Vienna with
officials from the U.S., France and Russia and the U.N.'s
nuclear watchdog agency.
One proposal is for Iran to buy the enriched uranium from
countries willing to sell it, and the other is for Iran to
send some of its low enriched uranium to countries such as
Russia for further processing, he said.
«The talks will be a test of the sincerity of those
countries,» he said. «Should talks fail or sellers refuse
to provide Iran with its required fuel, Iran will enrich
uranium to the 20 percent level needed itself,» he said.
Shirzadian said Iran prefers to buy the fuel from the
world market, saying that would be cheaper than producing
it at home.
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei,
said last week in Tehran that there has been a «shifting
of gears» in Iran's confrontation with the West to more
cooperation and transparency.
A landmark meeting on Oct. 1 in Geneva put the
negotiations back on track.
The West has new concerns, however, about the newly
revealed uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom.
ElBaradei said international inspectors would visit the
facility on Oct. 25.


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