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Iran: Nuclear announcement coming in April

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's controversial president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday his country will make an announcement in April about new nuclear achievements.

Reports surfaced last fall that Tehran was trying to produce 3,000 centrifuges and expected to meet the goal by March of this year. The report was published by the Iranian Student News Agency and quoted a member of parliament.

Last month, an official with Iran's nuclear agency denied Iran was building 3,000 centrifuges.

However, a senior U.S. official said some officials had expected Ahmadinejad to announce in his speech Sunday that Iran had put those centrifuges in place.

The production of 3,000 centrifuges would allow Iran to begin industrial scale production of nuclear fuel -- a move that has raised international concern that the country might ultimately produce nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad said Iran will not come to the negotiating table with Western nations if suspension of Tehran's nuclear program is a precondition for talks.

"If you seek negotiation why do you insist on suspension? If we suspend, what do we want to talk about?" he asked, as a crowd dressed mostly in black -- some holding signs reading "Down with America" -- looked on.

"How come your factories and reactors are working day and night while you're asking our factories and centers to stop its facilities? Our nation will never accept such conditions."

The president warned the Western nations that Tehran will not permit any of its "rights" to be taken away, by word or by action.

"The world must know that if they try to deny that right to us they will be the most hated nation," he said. Applause rippled through the crowd.

Iran has repeatedly said uranium enrichment is its right and will not be abandoned, despite United Nations demands.

The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran in December for its failure to halt uranium enrichment activities. The sanctions require the prevention of any supply, sale or transfer to Iran of any equipment, technology or information that could contribute to enrichment activities or to nuclear weapons systems.

Ahmadinejad brushed away the threat of further sanctions in his speech Sunday, calling them "ineffective."

"It is a tactic from 30 years ago. It does not have any effect on us," he said.

Asked about U.S. reaction to Ahmadinejad's speech, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe reiterated Washington's willingness to talk to Iran once it complies with the U.N. Security Council resolution.

"The international community is united in this, but unfortunately, we didn't hear anything today that leads us to believe Iran is going to take the steps expected of them," Johndroe said.

Ahmadinejad said Tehran has brought on "the most transparent solution" in an attempt to build confidence with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

On Saturday, Tehran announced it is now in compliance with demands made earlier by the IAEA that it make its nuclear program more transparent.

Surveillance cameras have now been installed at the Natanz nuclear facilities, making it "possible for the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Natanz nuclear site thoroughly," Iran's state-run news agency IRNA reported.

On Friday, the IAEA decided to suspend nearly half its aid projects in the heavily scrutinized country.

Meanwhile, Iran's top nuclear negotiator told global security officials meeting in Munich, Germany, that his country did not pose a nuclear threat to any nation, The Associated Press reported.

Julie

NATANZ, Iran (Reuters) - Iran announced on Monday it had begun industrial-scale nuclear fuel production in a fresh snub to the U.N. Security Council, which has imposed two rounds of sanctions on it for refusing to halt such work.

The announcement marks a shift from experimental atomic fuel work involving a few hundred centrifuges used for enriching uranium to a process that will involve thousands of machines.

Western nations fear this will bring Tehran closer to what they say is its aim of building atomic bombs. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists it only wants the fuel for generating electricity so it can export more of its oil and gas.

"I proudly announce that as of today Iran is among the countries which produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a gathering at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran.

Washington swiftly denounced the declaration, saying it was a further sign Iran was defying the international community.

Iran, which announced a year ago it had produced its first tiny batch of enriched uranium, had said it would install 3,000 centrifuges as a first stage towards "industrial-scale" output.

Chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying Iran had "reached the capacity of 3,000". Asked if feedstock uranium gas had been injected into them, he told reporters: "Yes, we have injected gas."

Diplomats previously said Iran had set up a third of the 3,000 machines but had not introduced feedstock. An Iranian official told ISNA news agency U.N inspectors who routinely visit would confirm centrifuge numbers in 20 days' time.

Analysts say Iran has used such announcements of atomic progress in the past to strengthen its bargaining position with the West, but that such statements have often glossed over technical glitches they say have plagued Iran's nuclear work.

Iran aims to build 54,000 centrifuges, which spin at high speeds to produce fuel for power plants or, if it is enriched further, bombs. With 3,000, Iran could make enough material for a bomb in one year if it wanted to, Western experts say.

Iran announces industrial nuclear fuel work | U.S. | Reuters

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Iran to seek bids for two atomic power plants


TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran, embroiled in a row with the West over its nuclear ambitions, will issue tenders in the next few days for two new atomic power plants, a senior official said on Sunday.

Ahmad Fayazbakhsh, an official at Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said the power plants would each have capacity for 1,000 to 1,600 MW and would be built at Bushehr, the southwest port city where Russians are building Iran's first atomic plant.

The West fears Iran's civilian nuclear plans are a smokescreen for a military program, a charge Tehran denies.

"Two international tenders in the coming days will be issued by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization ... and they (the two plants) will be built at Bushehr," Fayazbakhsh, in charge of the nuclear power reactors at the Atomic Energy Organization, said.

"Because we have the capability to produce nuclear fuel inside the country, in the long term, part of the fuel for the reactors will be provided by Iran and the rest will be imported," he told a news conference.

Western capitals are mainly concerned about Iran's uranium enrichment work to make nuclear fuel because the work involves a process that can also be used to make material for atomic bombs.

Russia is due to supply fuel for the plant it is building, but the first shipment that was due in March has been delayed ostensibly because of a row over payment delays, Iran denies missing payments. The plant has taken years to complete.

Nuclear power network

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Monday at Iran's uranium enrichment facility that the country had begun making nuclear fuel on an industrial scale. Its refusal to stop this work has prompted two rounds of U.N. sanctions since December.

The U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran's plans were still in the early stages and said it was only running several hundred centrifuges not the thousands normally associated with industrial enrichment.

The more centrifuges Iran operates the quicker it could enrich enough fuel to the high levels needed for a bomb, if that was its aim, but Western experts say Iran is still several years away from building a warhead.

Iran had said it would announce tenders for two new nuclear plants last year but the final tender announcement was not made. Iran has said it wants to build a network nuclear power plants with a capacity for 20,000 MW by 2020.

Asked if Europeans had shown any interest in Iran's tender plans, Fayazbakhsh said: "In private meetings, they showed serious interest to participate." But he did not name any firms.

"Any company can participate," he said.

Documents showed to reporters said firms wishing to participate should register within 15 days from April 25 in Tehran or at the organization's representative office in Vienna. Bids would be opened on August 8, the documents said.

Iran said it wanted 36 percent of the work to be carried out by local contractors on what it said would be light-water reactors and also wanted bidders to submit financing offers.

It said it expected prices in the range of $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion for each 1,000 MW plant. Fayazbakhsh said he expected each plant to take nine to 11 years to complete.

"By putting these two reactors out to tender, technology will be transferred to Iran gradually and it can help improving Iran's technical knowledge in the next 20 years," he said.

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