Iran has begun making nuclear fuel in its underground uranium enrichment plant, a confidential UN atomic watchdog document said today, in an apparent heightening of its defiance of the United Nations.
The paper, obtained by Reuters news agency, also said Tehran had started up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines, divided into eight cascades, or networks, in the Natanz complex, in a drive to lay a basis for "industrial scale" enrichment.
Both moves flew in the face of UN Security Council resolutions demanding that Iran stop enriching uranium over fears Tehran's professed civilian nuclear fuel programme is a cover for mastering the means to build atomic bombs. Tehran says it seeks only nuclear-generated electricity.
But its past concealment of sensitive enrichment research from the International Atomic Energy Agency and continued stonewalling of IAEA inquiries have shaken confidence in its motives.
Iran announced on April 9th it had begun enriching in the Natanz hall, ramping up from a limited research operation above ground. But diplomats treated the disclosure sceptically pending word from the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.
To that end, the IAEA document said, agency inspectors conducted a "design information verification" at the plant on April 15-16th and were informed that eight cascades, totalling 1,312 centrifuges, were running and "some" uranium was being fed into them.
The document, which was a letter to Iran's IAEA ambassador from a senior IAEA official, also said Iran had stopped letting inspectors verify design work at the Arak heavy water reactor under construction and due for start-up in 2009.
Major powers see the reactor as a nuclear proliferation risk as it could be used to produce plutonium for the core of nuclear bombs, although Iran says it has only peaceful purposes such as production of radio-isotopes used in medical care.
Iran blocked IAEA access to Arak under its decision a few weeks ago to stop giving inspectors early design detail on future nuclear facilities. The move retaliated for a March UN resolution widening sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance