
Iran's Presidency Office / EPA file
A file handout picture released by presidential official website shows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inspecting the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran, 08 March 2007.
DUBAI — Iran is building about 3,000 advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges, Iranian media reported on Sunday, in a development likely to add to Western concerns about the Islamic state's disputed nuclear program.
Iran said earlier this year that it would install the new-generation centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran, but Sunday's reports in Iranian agencies appeared to be the first time a specific figure had been given.
The announcement, which comes after talks between Iran and world powers in Kazakhstan about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again, underlines Iran's continued refusal to bow to Western pressure to curb its nuclear program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in February 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the town of Natanz in central Iran. They were not yet operating.
Iranian media on Sunday paraphrased Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, as saying Iran was producing 3,000 new-generation centrifuges.
"The final production line of these centrifuges has reached an end and soon the early generations of these centrifuges with low efficiency will be set aside," Abbasi-Davani said in statements in the Iranian city of Isfahan on Sunday, according to the Fars news agency.
An IAEA note informing member states in January about Iran's plans implied Iran could install up to 3,000 or so of the new centrifuges. Natanz is designed for tens of thousands of the machines.
If launched successfully, such machines could enable Iran to speed up significantly its accumulation of material that the West fears could be used in a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is refining uranium only for peaceful purposes.
Iran has for years been trying to develop centrifuges more efficient than the erratic 1970s IR-1 model it now uses, but their introduction for full-scale production has been dogged by delays and technical hurdles, experts and diplomats say.
BUSHEHR
In his statements on Sunday Abbasi-Davani also addressed problems at the nuclear power plant near the Gulf city of Bushehr. The plant is not considered a major weapons proliferation risk but recent shutdowns there have raised concerns about its safety.
In its latest report on Iran, the IAEA said it had visited the Bushehr plant in mid-February and that Iran then told it the reactor was shut down. No reason was given.
The plant had previously been shut down in October 2012 and fuel had to be unloaded. A Russian nuclear industry source told Reuters in November the shutdown was due to the discovery of stray bolts beneath the fuel cells.
The 1,000-megawatt plant was originally started in 1975 by German company Siemens, and Russian engineers took over the project in the 1990s.
"In the last year and a half it (the Bushehr plant) has faced problems because of old equipment and hybrid technology from Russia and Germany," Abbasi-Davani was quoted as saying by Fars.
"In the last year we have had no problem in the nuclear portion of the reactors and the outages have been linked to the generators, because of problems in their Russian design and resulting energy leakage."
Iran has repeatedly said the delays at Bushehr were in part due to the need to ensure safety.
Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna


Iran plans to conspire with North Korea to smuggle a nuclear bomb into the US any way they can and detonate it. The sooner we can 'impress them' that it is not in their best interest to keep poking the bear with a sharp stick, the better. North Korea would love nothing less than to destroy a major city in America and Iran will help them do it.
Perhaps Washington DC would be a nifty place to store the smuggled nuke. LOL What happens when countries in Africa want to build their nuclear power plants? Are we going to dictate to them that they cannot do that or else we'll carpet bomb them? If Iran gets nukes, they know if they use them, they will be totally leveled within minutes of doing so. We cannot police the world any longer, America has to use other means to control rogue nations, its called diplomacy.
Much of Korean Culture is an anchor, dead weight, to social evolution. The Koreans, North and South, suffer from the same superstitions, delusions of grandeur and tyrannies of their elders. Korea will, most likely, self destruct.
Backtobasics, all I can say is wow, where did you get your information? I am guessing it is from the Zionist propaganda news agency. How about posting your source, so we can all be educated.
This story is a repeat from the same story a few weeks ago.
It doesn't matter what kind of centrifuges Iran is using. Their enrichment is being monitored, making it virtually impossible for Iran to enrich to the 95% required for a nuclear weapon.
In the story, it says: An IAEA note informing member states in January about Iran's plans, implied Iran could install up to 3,000 or so of the new centrifuges. Natanz is designed for tens of thousands of the machines.
Does the word implied, mean they are guessing they will install these new centrifuges?
If Natanz is designed for 10s of thousands and they only will have 3000 of the new centrifuges, it would appear they are not much of a threat to anyone. Actually it doesn't matter how many centrifuges they have, as long as monitoring continues. Those are just the facts, which cannot be refuted by anyone with a lick of common sense. Watch for the Zionists to start their fear mongering and their dire predictions based on propaganda, without an ounce of hard proof. In other words, look for a repeat of the same type bs they fed us to justify the war in Iraq.
@John Algarme,
That is an incredibly racist thing to say. I have a number of Korean friends and cannot possibly connect the way they act and think with what you are suggesting. I find Koreans to be a very happy, active and intellectually engaging culture. Not quite as happy as Thais but much more intellectual.
The Korean Peninsula possibly will self-destruct at some time. There simply is too much economic disparity between North and South Korea for it to continue to increase forever. But the example of Myanmar continues to impress and could well serve as a model for moving from an oppressive social dictatorship into a commercial disctatorship. They and Putin, who has modeled his style after the Rurmese, exchgange ideas of how to control massive amounts of money and influence. I could see North Korea headed in that direction.
Where is the SofS this Sunday ?
Oh yeah.....probably in Egypt telling them to get their Economy going.
Ido, you left the "i and t" out of your user name. You know, before and after the "o".
Paranoid much backtobasics?
Backto Basics wrote
RalphH wrote
I don't know which is more interesting. BacktoBasics living in the HBO series "24"or RalphH's continued attempts to blame everything on the Jews.
But reality says the Iranians are taking advantage of our political polarization to continue their march towards a nuclear state. That, and their statements about wiping Israel off the face of the earth lead me to believe they want to do that. We all know Iran hasn't attacked anyone, but they are clearly adept at using surrogates, like Hezbollah and Hamas to carry out their terrorism.
So my suggestion is to stop living in Hollywood's dramatztions and stop blaming other religions and look at the reality of what Iran has done and stated they will do.
Netanyahu's got to be wondering if Obama'a got his back.
Obama backs only Sunni.
It wouldn't surprise me to have Barack drop the hammer on Iran.
But not out of any love for Israel.
Let's just sic Israel on them- job done!
3000 more this must be very inefficient. how the hell did we get enough materiel to build the first A bomb?
Did we have something like this? I do not think they ever told us.
Looks like the peace full use is out the door. wonder why we are wasting our time with al quads leaders. they are just small mice compared to these big rats that we are not doing a thing to that is working.
Daily code for:
"If you didn't see this headline yesterday, or last week, when we wrote this maybe you'll read it today because the bosses want as much support for invading Iran as possible."
Would it have killed you to put a 'they're' in there?
You're an a$$hole Doug.
Glad I could stink up your day, sweetie
Adding "they're" is unnecessary. Why confuse the sentence with gibberish?
"Iran" is the subject phrase while "says" is the helping verb to "building" the predicate.
This may not conform to most Americans improper use of the English language, but is the correct way of constructing a sentence. Please do not pick apart what I write. I am not an English major just an American against the use of the webster douchenary.
.
This is only a SMALL part what is going on in Iran- much,much worse is the fact that new IAEA chief candidate and a former one- positively identify that Iran has a secret plutonium plant in the desert. http://www.morgenpost.de/politik/ausland/article/114071684/Geheime-Plutonium-Fabrik-in-der-iranischen-Wueste.html Backtobasics- North Korea has been testing long-range missiles and nuclear heads. Iran has tested all kinds of long range ballistic missiles capable of reaching long distances.
@mimi,
Here is a better link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9896389/Irans-Plan-B-for-a-nuclear-bomb.html
Most of the BMP article was lifted from this Telegraph article. But you are correct in contending that Iran has a "Plan B" for using plutoniium in a nuclear weapon. Not only can they produce plutonium at the Arak site but they have the ability to trade technology with North Korea to obtain even more.
But the connection of North Korean space shots with ICBMs is not accurate. A vehicle that takes 6 absolute months (a high "all hands on deck" rating) to fabricate one vehicle which then takes 7 days to assemble --- all out in the open --- and an additional 3 days to fuel. It's just too expensive, unreliable, detectable and vulnerable to be considered. Even then, the system could only be optinized to a throw weight less than NK's rockets could ever carry.
What would be scary would be if NK is trading missile technology, site hardening technology, and some plutonium for solid rocket fuel and "fast" missile technology. That would be what it would take to move NK from the tactical to the international stage. The bad news is that it is likely happening right now.
Chris - I read your link. It appears to me, to be a crock. Their big proof is some steam above a building, along with some activity. Sorry, that is proof of nothing and will not fly. Satellite images of activity around buildings, is the same type of proof the neocons used as proof the Iraqis were manufacturing chemical weapons. Guess what? they weren't. Inspectors went to all of those buildings and found nothing.
Newsflash to the Zionist posters: You cannot see through a roof of a building with a satellite. Therefore the links to plan B mean nothing. The Iranians could be using the site as a means to pull some chains or as a target they wouldn't mind losing.
Unless you have some proof of current N Korea dialogue and equipment transfers with Iran, I would suggest you are just another poster of Zionist propaganda, designed to fool the American people into believing there is a legitimate threat from Iran.
Here is some info on Iranian missiles.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/0224/Looming-Iranian-missile-threat-to-US-Pshaw
From getting all the rocket thrusters to work properly to
developing heat shields that can withstand the stresses of rapid atmospheric
reentry, Iran is probably many years away from getting an intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM). The American spy apparatus, which once hyped the
Iranian missile threat, has quietly stopping saying when Iran can hit the east
coast. And the irony is that it’s taking Iran so long precisely because its
missile efforts really are sophisticated.
“The bottom line,” says Paul Pillar, a veteran CIA Mideast analyst, “is that the
intelligence community does not believe [the Iranians] are anywhere close to
having an ICBM.”
It's in Israel's interests of course to convince the US otherwise, since Iran does
have missiles that can reach that country. Israeli Finance
Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a CNBC
interview on Wednesday. "We estimate that in 2-3 years they will have the
first inter-continental ballistic missiles that can reach the east coast of
America."
In a recent interview with CNN, Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey said
he believed the Iranian regime was a "rational actor" when it comes to the nuclear program. Dempsey said Iran would likely weigh the
ultimate costs and benefits of building a nuclear weapon before doing so. James
Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, recently told a Senate panel
that a decision had not yet been made by the regime in Tehran.
Aww come on Ralph, we went into Iraq with less proof and that turned out ok, right?
good grief, Ralph...WHERE in the WORLD does this article mention Israel and / or Zionism??? WHAT Zionist posters??? HAVE YOU BEEN SNIFFING GLUE???!!!!
A viner mentions NK and you bring up Zionism???
I used to think that in spite of being extremely misguided, you were still an intelligent man. I'll rethink this thought and file the new one under "Rabidly foaming at the mouth when it comes to Israel". Unfreakingbelievable!!!
chevaz, I bring up Zionists because they are the ones interested in promoting an attack on Iran, by the US. Please don't try to tell me I am wrong.
Is it not true that Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and the cabal of neocon/Zionists that worked in the Pentagon were highly instumental in promoting the illusion that Iraq was actively producing WMD, had a nuclear weapons program and was behind the attack on 9/11, working with al-AQaeda?
Sources in the Pentagon were leaking stories for Judy Miller (Zionist) of the NY Times, to print, which insinuated Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks. Here is a list of the Jews in the Pentagon with Israeli citizenship for you to ponder. Imagine, a group comprising 2% of the population, got the policy making jobs in the American Pentagon and were actively promoting false intelligence to the American people and to our politicians.
Some of us have had enough of this fear mongering by the Zionist press and the clowns on these forums.
No more wars for Israel.
Chairman Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Richard Perle
Deputy Defense Secretary (Former) - Paul Wolfowitz
Under Secretary of Defense - Douglas Feith
National Security Council Advisor - Elliott Abrams
Under Secretary for Arms Control - David Wurmser
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Eliot Cohen
National Security Study Group - Edward Luttwak
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Kenneth Adelman
Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst (Former) - Lawrence (Larry) Franklin ( the AIPAC
spy)
National Security Council Advisor - Robert Satloff
You see Chefaz,
Ralph here believes that anything bad that is done in this world is caused solely by Jews, and if non-Jews ever did anything wrong it's because Jews made them do it.
It's nice to never bear responsibility for anything, isn't it?
According to Iranwatch, which uses info from the IAEC, if Iran diverts all its current centrifuges to producing weapons grade material it could produce enough for one bomb every 1.5 to three months. Put that in the hands of one dictator who has repeatedly stated "I want to kill you all", and who is making friends in our backyard in South and Central America in hopes of building missile bases, and I think you have a legitimate threat.
Bring it on Iran ! If Israel will wait just a little longer, mutual destruction is assured. Free the rest of the world from the curse of the Persians, the Arabs and the Jews.
Interesting....as their cultures have been around a lot longer than the American culture and they feel the same way about us.
I hate to tell all you Arab bashing rednecks, but the kind of destruction that you wish to see in the Middle East will lead to the demise of the US. Our entire economic infrastructure is based on importing cheap crap from far away and transporting it all over an enormous country so that people can purchase cheap crap with their diluted dollars. If anything close to what you want were to happen in the middle east, our country would shut down because fuel prices would explode to the point that you could not afford to drive to work, could not afford to buy groceries, or heat your houses. Our economy is based on the continuing availability of cheap petroleum, and would collapse without it. Just to be clear, yes $4 a gallon is relatively cheap compared to what prices are in Europe and they have far more advanced means of transporting people and goods.
Ironically, there is plenty of oil in USA, and there is plenty of alternative sources of fuel.
Our corporations could've supplied the country just fine without Arab oil if they wanted to, but they wouldn't make nearly as much money as they do currently, so that is out of the question.
Everyone has to come to the realization this will not end well. No one wants another
war, and war with Iran won't go well, but at this point its impossible to see
any other approach. Time is sometimes the worst enemy to a regime like Iran -
where people start becoming unruly in their desire for political change. Iran
knows the only way to "reset" their political clock is to start a
crisis that makes its people's feelings of patriotic pride override their
domestic infighting.
To prevent an inward fight, you must start an outward one. War is coming.
good morning, mimi. my first thought was if we're reading this, what's happening that's not being published??? and here you are. ☺
always look forward to posts.
chevaz - I have your answer. The link isn't true. Its propaganda. You and mimi are both guilty of pushing Zionist propaganda, but what the heck, its your job to promote fear mongering.
I guess we'll just wait until they detonate one to do anything.
What do you want to do about it Gus? Should we just kill hundreds of thousands of more people like we did in Iraq? The US is not what it once was, we cannot support another war at this point, we are spending billions of dollars a month just to fight a bunch of goat herders in the mountains of Afghanistan, what makes you think we could actually fight a country with a real military? In case you haven't noticed, the Feds have kind of maxed out the nation's credit card.
It doesn't have to be a long war when you don't set unrealistic expectations.
Just come in, destroy the nukes and leave. Don't try to replace the government, certainly don't try to install democracy. End it all in a few days.
Israel is actually willing to do it for USA, if needed.
Of cause, if Iran simply proves that they don't have nukes, or pulls out of the treaty and get's legal right to make nukes, there will be no need for any war at all.
That would be nice.
Nuke them!
Nothing like a 6 year old photo to fire you up. Remember we're too broke to wage war.
Just tell the rag-heads that Allah is living in the United States, and if they nuke us they might pi$$ him off. :D
Just to remind all of you morons, so far in the WMD game, the score is US:2, rest of the world:0. A country that killed thousands upon thousands of citizens in Japan with two atomic bombs has no business telling a country that has shown no desire to attack another country that it cannot refine material for power generation or medical use, or even a weapon for that matter.
How about telling it to a country that has shown desire to attack another country?
Nations which do not posess nuclear weapons of mass destruction may have the moral authority to dissuade Iran from obtaining such weapons. Nations which proclaim "Do as we say, not as we do" do not have that authority.
They are going for a bomb. Period. Hagel had it right the first time in his confirmation hearing--the policy is to let Iran get a bomb and then try to contain it, not prevent it in the first place.
The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has been banned from inspecting the Parchin complex for years and from inspecting Arak for the past 18 months. The West is sleepwalking its way into the clutches of a nuclear armed Iran.
Procrustes, no one is even accusing Iran of enriching uranium in Parchin or Arak. The IAEA is not entitled to inspect militrary bases. Iran can do what they want on their military bases, as long as they do not enrich uranium. See, if you cannot enrich uranium to 97%, you cannot construct a nuclear device.
Hey, I have an idea, see if you can get Israel to let the world inspect Dimona or some Israeli military bases. Let us know how you make out.
'1992:'Israeli parliamentarian Benjamin Netanyahu tells his
colleagues that Iran is 3 to 5 years from being able to produce a nuclear
weapon – and that the threat had to be "uprooted by an international front
headed by the US"'.
Whoops, its been 21 years since Netanyahu's fearless prediction and Iran still has no nuclear weapon. Nutinyahoo better get a new crystal ball.
Hey, here is an Israeli with a few more brains. Read this:
If one day, Iran decides to cut its cooperation with the IAEA, it
would make it easier to use such a site to make a bomb, but it's in the long
term," said Meir Javedanfar, an analyst and lecturer on Iranian issues
at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. "In the short
term, I don't think Israel has too much to worry about because the site is
still under inspection.
Any comments, Procrustres?
Any comments form UN?
I am still waiting not for Israel, not for USA, but for very non-Jewish non-Western UN to tell us that Iran is all peaceful and loving.
Yes, Iran is going for a bomb. Period. I guess there are still a few naive dunces, encouraged by radical Islamists, who believe Iran would go through this huge national effort and expenditure of resources to develop nuclear medicine or power, but sane, informed, clear-thinking people can see through the lies and deceptions of the rabid mullahs. Iran is going for a bomb. Period.
whats with the white coat makes a difference just because they are white. they should help 3000 of the poor people in Iran instead of working on that stupid crap. thoughts guy in the back look like they don't even want to be there. the picture looks kind of phony anyway. but it gives them something to do. wait that picture is for 5 years ago. thats old news. what am i reading this for.
It's time for these radical A-HOLES to be eliminated. Plain & simple without the bull-@!$%# rhetoric!!!!!!!!!
Seeing how Iran wants nuclear material so much...I say we send them all the material from our Hanford, Washington site...I am sure the residents of Oregon and Washington will not mind...
Iran thinks if they have nukes that all of a sudden they'll get respect from the West and get invited to set at the adults table. Sorry, having an atomic bomb has nothing to do with getting respect or demanding respect for that matter.
Being an adult though does have everything to do with being invited to set at the adults table.
Just a matter of time before we get hit with a dirty bom.
warren, if we are ever hit with a dirty bomb, you can be sure it is false flag attack, with Israel in the background. Having said that, even nuked have a signature.
And if any Arab leaders publicly claim responsibility for that hit, Ralph will still tell us that "it's all joooos."
Believe it or not, the fission of U238 produces roughly the same amount of energy as U235, it just can't sustain a chain reaction on its own because of a shortage of neutrons from the reaction. Because of this, uranium really doesn't need isotopic separation for the production of commercial nuclear energy, if you use continuous thermonuclear triggers to supply the needed neutrons for these fission reactions. We have very large stores of U238 (depleted uranium) right now which we can use for nuclear fuel. In fact, we can also use our large stores of thorium this same way for nuclear fuel as well, and we can even burn up much of our nuclear waste for fuel this way, too. But sadly, so far no one really wants to listen to me. Oh well, no one can ever say I didn't try to tell them before it was too late for our emerging human world! Have fun, everyone, with your program "End Times"! - RC
We can actually burn 100% of our uranium reserves, and 100% of our thorium reserves for nuclear fuel, versus the 0.7% of our uranium (U235) which we are burning right now, by taking this hybrid nuclear / thermonuclear approach to nuclear energy, and we can also make our world a far safer place to live in at the same time, by eliminating the need for isotope processing (and reprocessing) of nuclear fuel, and by eliminating much of our dangerous nuclear waste at the same time. Won't anyone ever listen before it is too late for our emerging human world? The cost of energy will plummet at the same time, leaving far more money worldwide for the production and purchase of industrial and commercial products by everyone! It also greatly reduces the risk of a nuclear accident at the same time, since these hybrid reactors can be easily turned off with the simple flip of a switch (there will still be some cool down time due to residual decay). - RC
In addition, electrical transmission can be made far more efficient as well, since these hybrid nuclear / thermonuclear reactors can be built almost any size, thereby allowing cellular placement on electrical grids and greatly reducing transmission losses at the same time. Currently transmission losses of electricity vary from 40% to 50% because of the inability to do this cellular placement of electrical generation on our electrical grids based upon local electrical demand. - RC
@RC
Interesting ..
My serious question: Will Ben Affleck make a movie on the centrifuges of Iran, and will it get the Oscars or the Nobel Peace Prize?
I cannot sleep thinking about these questions! :))