Institute for Science and
International Security, a US think tank, says that if the Islamic Republic
keeps enriching uranium, it will have enough for five bombs.
VIENNA - Iran has
significantly stepped up its output of low-enriched uranium and total
production in the last five years, which would be enough for at least five
nuclear weapons if refined much further, a US security institute said.
The Institute for Science and
International Security (ISIS), a think-tank which closely tracks Iran's nuclear
program, made the analysis on the basis of data in the latest quarterly UN
watchdog report which was issued on Friday.
Progress in Iran's nuclear
activities is closely watched by the West and Israel as it could determine how
long it could take Tehran to build atomic bombs, if it decided to do so. Iran
denies any plan to and says its aims are entirely peaceful.
During talks in Baghdad this
week, six world powers failed to convince Iran to scale back its uranium
enrichment program. They will meet again in Moscow next month to try to defuse
a decade-old standoff that has raised fears of a new war in the Middle East
that could disrupt oil supplies.
Friday's report by the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Vienna-based UN body, showed Iran
pressing ahead with its uranium enrichment work in defiance of UN resolutions
calling on it to suspend the activity.
It said Iran had produced
almost 6.2 tonnes of uranium enriched to a level of 3.5 percent since it began
the work in 2007 - some of which has subsequently been further processed into
higher-grade material.
This is nearly 750 kg more
than in the previous IAEA report issued in February, and ISIS said Iran's
monthly production had risen by roughly a third.
"This total amount of
3.5 percent low enriched uranium hexafluoride, if further enriched to weapon
grade, is enough to make over five nuclear weapons," ISIS said in its
analysis.
It added, however, that some
of Iran's higher-grade uranium had been converted into reactor fuel and would
not be available for nuclear weapons, at least not quickly.
Enriched uranium can be used
to fuel power plants, which is Iran's stated purpose, or to provide material
for bombs, if refined to a much higher degree. The West suspects that may be
Iran's ultimate goal despite the Islamic Republic's denials.
Iran began enriching uranium
to a fissile concentration of 20 percent in 2010, saying it needed this to fuel
a medical research reactor. It later expanded the work sharply by launching
enrichment at an underground site, Fordow.
It alarmed a suspicious West
since such enhanced enrichment accomplishes much of the technical leap towards
90 percent - or weapons-grade - uranium.
The IAEA report said Iran had
installed more than 50 percent more enrichment centrifuges at Fordow, which is
buried deep under rock and soil to protect it against any enemy attacks.
Although not yet being fed
with uranium, the new machines could be used to further boost Iran's output of
uranium enriched to 20 percent.
ISIS said Iran still appeared
to be experiencing problems in its testing of production-scale units of more
advanced centrifuges that would allow it to refine uranium faster, even though
it had made some progress.
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