Iran nuclear work persists despite U.N. threats

VIENNA, Austria – Iran is expanding its uranium enrichment program even as the U.N. Security Council focuses on possible sanctions for its defiance of a demand to give up the activity and ease fears it seeks nuclear weapons, diplomats said Monday.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the information to media, said that within the past few weeks Iranian nuclear experts had started up a second pilot enrichment facility.

Although the 164 centrifuges were not producing enriched uranium, even the decision to “dry test” them showed Iran’s defiance of the Security Council. The council had set an Aug. 31 deadline for Tehran to cease all experiments linked to enrichment. It may start full deliberations on sanctions as early as this week.

Iran produced a small batch of low-enriched uranium – suitable as nuclear fuel but not weapons grade – in February, using its initial cascade of 164 centrifuges at its pilot plant at Natanz.

Iran said it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at its enrichment plant by the end of this year. Industrial production of enriched uranium would require 54,000 centrifuges.

Although nowhere near that goal, successful testing of other cascades would indicate that Tehran is slowly mastering the complexities of producing enriched uranium.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has taken the lead in probing Tehran’s nuclear program, could not be reached for comment and issued no official confirmation.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian envoy to the IAEA, said he had no knowledge of “new developments” at Natanz. But he said all nuclear activities “are going on as planned.”

In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country’s nuclear capability has increased tenfold despite Western pressure to roll back its atomic program, which Iran insists is peaceful.

“The enemies, resorting to propaganda, want to block us from achieving (nuclear technology),” Ahmadinejad told a crowd on the southern outskirts of Tehran. “But they should know that today, the capability of our nation has multiplied tenfold over the same period last year.”