Iran begins producing nuclear fuel, says UN watchdog
1,300 centrifuges start, report says
VIENNA -- Iran has begun producing nuclear fuel in its underground uranium enrichment plant, a confidential UN atomic watchdog document said yesterday, ratcheting up its defiance of the United Nations.
The paper also said Tehran had started up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines, divided into eight cascades, or networks, in the Natanz complex, in an accelerating campaign to lay a basis for "industrial scale" enrichment.
Both moves flew in the face of UN Security Council resolutions demanding that Iran stop enriching uranium over fears Tehran's professed civilian nuclear fuel program is a cover for mastering the means to build atomic bombs.
Tehran says it seeks only nuclear-generated electricity.
But its past concealment of sensitive enrichment research from the International Atomic Energy Agency and continued stonewalling of IAEA inquiries have shaken confidence in its intentions.
Iran announced on April 9 that it had begun enriching in the Natanz hall, ramping up from a limited research operation above ground.
But diplomats treated the disclosure skeptically pending word from the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.
To that end, the document said, IAEA inspectors conducted a "design information verification" at the plant on April 15-16 and were informed that eight cascades -- 1,312 centrifuges in all -- were running and "some" uranium was being fed into them.
