Iran has speeded up Nuclear plans, says UN

Iran has speeded up its nuclear programme and plans to complete a large-scale uranium enrichment facility by May, the United Nations atomic watchdog recently said. By that time, according to a long-awaited report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran plans to install and start using 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium – despite UN demands that it suspend uranium enrichment related activities. If they functioned smoothly, the 3,000 centrifuges – organised into “cascades” of 164 machines apiece – could produce sufficient highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb within a year. The report said Iran intended “to continue progressively with the installation of the 18 cascades of the 3,000 machine hall and to bring them gradually into operation by May 2007”.