The standoff over Iran's nuclear aspirations is about to get worse -- 10 times worse. The Islamic Republic News Agency on Sunday made public the Iranian government's plans to build 10 new nuclear enrichment plants, each capable of producing as much fuel as the controversial Natanz site.
Tehran says it wants to produce enough fuel to supply power plants generating a total of 20,000 megawatts of electricity. And here's the kicker: plans are in the works to break ground on five new sites over the next two months.
This new plan could accelerate a regional crisis that has centered on Iran's enrichment-related activities. And at this point, it's worth asking if Iran already has started work on the new facilities.
In addition to Natanz, Iran has a once-secret nuclear site near Qom, called the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. After they paid a visit to the Fordow plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's atomic watchdog, wondered aloud if there might be other sites scattered around the country. Other arms-control experts have been wondering about the same thing. Writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Ivan Oelrich and Ivanka Barzashka recently argued that the size and capacity of the Fordow plant "would make the most sense if it were part of a network of clandestine nuclear facilities."
Iranian policymakers have been talking for some time about plans to plans to construct nuclear power plants with a total capacity of over 20,000 megawatts. But this speeds things up considerably. In a cabinet meeting, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran was planning to build 500,000 new centrifuges. "We should be able to produce 250 – 300 tons of fuel per hour and to attain the goal we need more new modern centrifuges with higher speed," he said.
On Friday, the IAEA censured Iran for building the Qom plant. Outgoing IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said the agency's talks with the Islamic regime had reached a "dead end." Iranian parliamentarians are now talking about breaking off or reducing ties with the agency, which would mean even less international oversight of Iran's nuclear ambitions.
“We welcome friendly ties with the world, in the meantime, we never let them violate the legitimate rights of Iranian nation as little as a needle-head,” Ahmadinejad said in a statement carried by the country's official news agency.
[PHOTO: President.ir]
