Iran has revealed existence of second enrichment plant

Iran has told the UN nuclear agency that it is running a new, previously undeclared, facility to enrich uranium. Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment. The officials said that Iran revealed the existence of a second enrichment plant in a letter sent Monday to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
It had previously said it was operating only one plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.The Islamic Republic insists that it has the right to the activity to generate fuel for what it says will be a nationwide chain of nuclear reactors. The officials said that the letter contained no details about the location of the second facility, when it had started operations or the type and number of centrifuges it was running.

The government officials - one speaking from his European capital outside Vienna, the other a diplomat in Vienna from a country accredited to the IAEA - demanded anonymity because their information was confidential. One said he had seen the letter. The other told that he had been informed about it by a UN official who had seen it.

While Iran's mainstay P-1 centrifuge is a decades-old model based on Chinese technology, it has begun experimenting with state-of-the art prototypes that enrich more quickly and efficiently than its old model. UN officials familiar with the IAEA's attempts to monitor and probe Iran's nuclear activities have previously told that they suspected Iran might be running undeclared enrichment plants.

The existence of a secret Iranian enrichment programme built on black market technology was revealed seven years ago. Since then the country has continued to expand the programme with only a few interruptions as it works toward its aspirations of a 50,000-centrifuge enrichment facility at the southern city of Natanz.

The last IAEA report on Iran in August said Iran had set up more than 8,000 centrifuges to churn out enriched uranium at the cavernous underground Natanz facility, although the report said that only about 4,600 of those were fully active.

Pressure deepened against Iran on Thursday when the world's eight top economic powers gave Teheran until year's end to cease enriching uranium or face new sanctions, but resistance from China could undermine the effort.

Washington has been pushing for heavier sanctions if Iran does not agree to end enrichment, which many nations believe is part of Teheran's drive to build a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is designed to generate electricity.
The US hand was strengthened Wednesday when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested he could now back such sanctions if they became necessary.

But, the prospects of pushing a new sanctions resolution through the Security Council were undercut Thursday when China, one of the veto-wielding permanent members, rejected the idea. Instead, more diplomatic efforts are needed, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing at a news conference, reiterating a long-held stance.

Current UN sanctions on Iran are meant to prohibit exports of sensitive nuclear material and technology. They also allow the inspection of cargo suspected of carrying prohibited goods, tighter monitoring of financial institutions and the extension of travel bans and asset freezes if linked to its nuclear programme.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his Wednesday speech to the General Assembly, did not mention the nuclear matters issue and the push by the US, Britain and France for heavier sanctions.On Thursday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the Group of Eight nations had given Iran until the end of the year to commit to ending uranium enrichment if it wants to avoid new sanctions.

Frattini, whose nation holds the rotating chair of the club of wealthy nations known as the G-8, said that member foreign ministers agreed Wednesday night "to give Iran a chance."
But Frattini said that the informal agreement will be re-examined each month, "And after the end of December, I strongly hope we will have at that time practical moves from Iran."

"That's why together we decided - while not excluding further measures, as even Russia apparently said - we have to give Iran a serious chance," he said. "If we give a chance, let's give a chance. Don't, I would say, immediately put another option on the table. This would be counterproductive to the eyes of our counterpart. This is our strategy for the moment."

The maneuvering comes ahead an Oct. 1 meeting of diplomats from Iran, the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany on Teheran's nuclear program. The key to new sanctions would require agreement among all five permanent Security Council members. The United States, Britain and France lean toward more sanctions. Russia now appears open to the measure, but China still is refusing.

Beijing is heavily reliant on Iranian oil imports. "We believe we need to help Iran to take a right decision," Medvedev said Wednesday night after he met President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The US, Britain and France all mentioned Iran, along with North Korea, as obstacles to a safer world during a Security Council meeting Thursday that approved a US-drafted resolution that commits all nations to achieving a nuclear weapons-free world. The resolution does not mention any country by name but it reaffirms previous resolutions that imposed sanctions on Iran and North Korea for their nuclear activities. It did not call for any new sanctions.

Since Iran's nuclear programme was discovered seven years ago, it has put thousands of centrifuges online to churn out enriched uranium. But the International Atomic Energy Agency says the more than a ton of enriched material it has amassed is all below the 5 percent level and well below the 20 percent highly enriched mark. Still Iran's accumulation of well over 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of low-enriched uranium gives it more than enough material to produce enough weapons-grade uranium through further enrichment for one nuclear weapon.