Tehran, February 22: Iran said on Monday it is considering plans to start building two new uranium enrichment plants from March, with the sites concealed in the mountains to avert air strikes.
The announcement from Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi came soon after top US General David Petraeus warned that Washington would now pursue “pressure track” against Iran.
“God willing, in the next Iranian year (starting in March) as ordered by the president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites,” Salehi told ISNA news agency.
He said the enrichment capacities of the new sites would be similar to the existing facility in the central city of Natanz, where Tehran is refining uranium.
According to the latest UN nuclear watchdog report, Iran has installed in Natanz 8,610 centrifuges, the device which rotates at supersonic speed to enrich uranium.
Of these, 3,772 centrifuges are actively enriching uranium under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iranian officials maintain Natanz has an annual capacity to produce about 30 tonnes of enriched uranium. According to IAEA, Iran currently has an estimated 2,065 kilogrammes (4,540 pounds) of low-enriched uranium.
Salehi said the new plants will be equipped with new generation centrifuges and the facilities would be hidden in mountains so as to protect them from “any attacks.”
Israel has previously threatened Iran with military strikes and the US has not ruled out averting to military strikes against Tehran either.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East that actually has nuclear bombs.
Iran is currently building its second uranium enrichment facility inside a mountain near the Shiite holy city of Qom.
On December 5, Salehi said Iran needs 20 uranium enrichment plants to meet all its electricity needs for a growing population.
Iran is already at loggerheads with world powers for not accepting an IAEA-drafted deal which would supply it with nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor in return for the transfer of the bulk of its low-enriched uranium.
Tehran insists it wants a simultaneous exchange of the two materials, with the transfer taking place inside the country, a demand strongly opposed by world powers.
Tensions rose further after IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said in a report to the agency’s board last Thursday that there were concerns Iran could be working on developing nuclear warheads.
Iranian officials dismissed the latest report as “baseless.”
—Agencies