Re: US backs Iran civilian nuke program for first time
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Crisis looms as Iran resumes uranium enrichment</font size></center>
ISFAHAN: Iran put itself on a collision course with the West on Monday after it resumed ultra-sensitive nuclear fuel work at its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan.
"Iran has resumed the conversion of uranium under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency," declared Vice-President of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency Mohammad Saidi. "It is a historic day. With the help of God the plant is back online today, just as the people wanted, who pushed the leaders to do this," Saidi told journalists.
The IAEA, which is to hold an emergency meeting of its 35-member board of governors on Tuesday (today) to discuss the standoff, confirmed that Tehran began sensitive fuel cycle work that it had suspended in order to negotiate with the European Union.
"IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei informed members of the (IAEA) board of governors that Iran today started to feed uranium ore concentrate into the first part of the process line at the uranium conversion facility," the UN agency said in a statement. "It should be noted that the sealed parts of the process line remain intact," it added.
On Monday, work at Isfahan resumed after IAEA inspectors installed cameras and other surveillance equipment at the plant to ensure no nuclear material is diverted. Iranian technicians in white protective suits and surgical masks rolled out barrels of yellowcake — raw uranium — to begin the conversion process.
The facility covers an area of over 150 acres, spread along a short range of mountains outside of the city, and parts of it have been built in tunnels inside the mountains to protect the equipment from air strikes. The facility is also surrounded by numerous radar stations and anti-aircraft batteries.
Iran learnt a lesson from the 1981 Israeli air strike against neighbouring Iraq’s main nuclear reactor at Osirak. Iran has spread out its facilities over several locations, each with sections built underground. The Isfahan facility and the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, also central Iran, house the heart of Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Isfahan Conversion Facility, 410 kms south of Tehran, carries out an early stage of the cycle for developing nuclear fuel, turning yellowcake into UF-6 gas, the feedstock for enrichment. In the next stage of the process, which Iran has said it will not resume for the time being, the gas is fed in centrifuges for enrichment. Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel and further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic bomb.
The IAEA said it has installed cameras at Isfahan to monitor Iran’s renewed activities at the plant. "This activity was commenced following the installation today by the IAEA of cameras ... but regrettably prior to completion of the testing of the cameras, which normally takes 24 hours following installation," the IAEA said.
Saidi said that work was resuming "stage by stage", starting with the unit that produces ammonium uranyl carbonate, or AUC, a component in the conversion process. The plant will soon start turning yellowcake into UF-4, a preliminary stage before UF-6, the state news agency reported.
The AUC unit had not been sealed by the UN watchdog agency. Within the next two days, IAEA inspectors will remove seals that were put in place on the unit where UF-4 is turned into UF-6, bringing the facility into full operation, Saidi said.
The seals are a voluntary measure, and the IAEA has no choice but to remove them when Iran requests it. Tehran says it is still abiding by IAEA inspections of its sites, so it allowed the installation of surveillance equipment to keep an eye on the process.
Before the suspension of work at the plant, Iran converted some 37 tons of yellowcake into UF-4. Experts say that amount could yield 100 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium, enough to make five crude nuclear weapons.
Saidi said Iran is willing to wait on starting uranium enrichment until a deal is reached with Europe. "We won’t restart work in Natanz for now. We hope we will reach a logical conclusion in talks with Europeans," he said.
The announcement drew a swift response from arch-enemy the United States and the EU. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Iran is provoking "grave crisis" that requires a united response from the international community. "The international community will react and will decide the response to give," he told AFP. "I hope it will be united in the face of this grave crisis deliberately provoked by Iran."
A US official said Iran’s move was "unfortunate. "We’ve said all along that should Iran break the seals and restart uranium enrichment at Isfahan or anywhere else, we would think an appropriate response would be a referral to the United Nations."
However, Iranian officials emphasised they were not worried about UN action, saying the Islamic republic’s right to the nuclear fuel cycle is enshrined in the NPT. "We are not concerned and are ready for everything," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. He called the threats "not effective. What interests us is cooperation. We advise Europe to withdraw its threats."
"The decision is irreversible even if the (IAEA) board decides tomorrow to send the Iran dossier to the Security Council because (the demand for a suspension) has no legal basis and is contrary to the NPT," Saidi said.
In Vienna, the headquarters of the IAEA, diplomats said the UN atomic agency is likely to hold off on taking Iran to the UN Security Council. "The threat (of referral) is being held for a second meeting," a diplomat close to the agency told AFP.
A second diplomat said the resumption of work at Isfahan had "taken things to a different level. I do not know what the (IAEA) board is going to do on Tuesday because things are moving very fast."
But another diplomat pointed out that Iran has still not cut IAEA surveillance seals at Isfahan and has support from non-aligned nations for peaceful use of nuclear energy. "They’ll find some way to get out of it," the diplomat said about the Iranian tactics.
The IAEA meeting had been postponed from a morning start until mid-afternoon, the agency said in a press statement, in what diplomats described as a sign of intense closed-door negotiations as the EU seeks a resolution that will be strong and have consensus support from the board.
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