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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran increases nuclear enrichment level |
| 2006-04-30 |
| Iran has enriched uranium to more than 4 per cent, a level higher than Iran previously told the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog but still in the range used for fuel in nuclear power stations. Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in mid-April that it had enriched uranium to 3.6 per cent, a level which the IAEA confirmed from samples it took. Experts say uranium enriched to a range of roughly 3 to 5 per cent is a low level used in atomic power reactors. Uranium would have to be enriched far higher, to 80 per cent or more, to make nuclear weapons, which is what the West fears Iran wants. "We have done enrichment in the range of above 4 per cent," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, said. He also repeated Iran's position that it would not give up enrichment, describing it as an "issue of life and death for Iranian society" and saying the goal enjoyed broad support. "It is up to Iran to decide if it will keep enrichment at a pilot level or move towards an industrial scale," he said. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran will pursue large-scale enrichment in defiance of UN demands for suspending the sensitive nuclear work. |
| Posted by:Fred |