NICOSIA — Iran plans to rapidly expand uranium enrichment by deploying an advanced gas centrifuge.
Officials said Iran has been testing an advanced centrifuge to accelerate nuclear fuel production. Teheran has been testing the P-2 centrifuge, deemed a significant improvement over Iran's P-1 model. Western intelligence sources said Iran has already been using the P-2 in underground facilities located in eastern Iran near the border with Pakistan.
"Many of the announcements by Iran regarding its uranium enrichment program reflected technology achieved as early as November 2005," an intelligence source said. "Since then, Iran has been steadily advancing in its program and capabilities."
On April 12, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disclosed the P-2 tests. In an address to students in Khorasan, Ahmadinejad said P-2 had four times the enrichment capacity of P-1.
"Our centrifuges are P-1 type," Ahmadinejad said. "P-2, which has quadruple the capacity, is currently under the process of research and testing in the country."
It was the first time Iran announced a program to develop the P-2 centrifuge. Until now, many Western analysts dismissed Iran's uranium enrichment program based on the inferior capabilities of the Pakistan-origin P-1.
On April 10, Ahmadinejad reported the production of nuclear fuel from a cascade of 164 centrifuges comprised of P-1 centrifuges.
The P-2, based on German technology, is regarded as more reliable than the P-1. Iran reportedly received the blueprints of the P-2 from the nuclear smuggling network headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Kahn.
On April 12, a leading Iranian nuclear physicist, Hassan Ghafuri Fard, told Iranian television that Teheran would assemble up to 60,000 centrifuges by 2008. He said that by in March 2007 Iran would accumulate 3,000 centrifuges for what he termed "semi-industrial nuclear fuel production."
"Then we will have to obtain at least 54,000 to 60,000 [centrifuges] to produce industrial fuel for our reactor [at Bushehr]," Ghafuri Fard said. "This process will take between one and two years."
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