Iran may announce uranium enrichment at Fordow: Report

A new report says Iran was expected to announce the official launch of uranium enrichment at Fordow nuclear facility when it unveiled nuclear achievements last week.

The announcement, however, did not happen and was postponed to another time, Iranian website Mashregh reported on Tuesday.

“Fordow nuclear facility is in a situation where its launch would be announced soon officially,” the paper said.

Experts believe launching the facility before the new round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany) would have considerable effects on the negotiations.

The Fordow nuclear facility, Iran’s second site for enriching uranium, is located in Qom Province, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Tehran.

On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled the country’s latest nuclear achievements during a ceremony in Tehran.

The Islamic Republic has placed the first indigenous fuel rods into the heart of Tehran Research Reactor.

It has also added 3,000 new generation centrifuges to Natanz nuclear facility, bringing the number of its active centrifuges to 9,000.

A diplomat said the refusal to announce the official inauguration of uranium enrichment at Fordow would keep the West in suspense.

The US, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program, using this pretext to impose sanctions against Iran and threaten the country with military attack.

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted towards nuclear weapons production.