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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BubbaFred who wrote (6807)	2/9/2003 4:50:40 PM
From: BubbaFred	Respond to of 25898

Khatami Says Iran Mines Uranium for Nuclear Plant By Parisa Hafezi story.news.yahoo.com TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) said on Sunday Iran had mined uranium for use in its nuclear power plants and would reprocess the spent fuel itself, but insisted its nuclear program was solely for civilian use. The surprise announcement, in a speech broadcast on state television, was the first time Iran has acknowledged possession of uranium ore reserves. It may alarm Washington, which accuses the Islamic Republic of harboring secret plans to develop nuclear weapons. "Iran has discovered reserves and extracted uranium...we are determined to use nuclear technology for civilian purposes," Khatami said. He said the uranium had been extracted in the Savand area, 125 miles from the central city of Yazd, and processing facilities had been set up in the central cities of Isfahan and Kashan. Iran, which Washington has labelled a member of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea (news - web sites), insists its nuclear plans are purely for civilian purposes, to meet growing demand for electricity from its 65 million people. It has invited inspectors from the United Nations (news - web sites) nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), to verify its nuclear facilities later this month. In another development, state television quoted Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani as saying Iran, for the first time, had developed the capacity to produce composite solid fuels for its missiles. "This solid fuel could be used for any kind of missile," he said after inaugurating a manufacturing plant on Sunday. Iran makes medium-range missiles, anti-tank missiles, air- to-surface missiles and surface-to-surface guided missiles that use composite solid fuel. U.S. CRITICAL OF RUSSIAN HELP Washington, Iran's arch-foe, has long been at odds with Russia over its help in building an $800 million nuclear power plant at Iran's southwestern port of Bushehr, which Tehran expects to come on stream at the end of 2003 or early in 2004. U.S. fears over the project were somewhat assuaged by assurances from Moscow that all spent fuel from the plant would be returned to Russia, ensuring that it would not be diverted to a weapons program. But Khatami said on Sunday that Iran intended to control the whole fuel cycle itself, from mining and processing the uranium ore to reprocessing the spent fuel. "If we need to produce electricity from our nuclear power plants, we need to complete the circle from discovering uranium to managing remaining spent fuel," he said. "The government is determined to complete that circle." Diplomats said Khatami's announcement stemmed from world pressure to come clean about the scope of its nuclear program. "They seem to be making a creeping announcement of what their capabilities are," said one European diplomat. The head of the Iranian parliament's Energy Commission, Hossein Afarideh, told Reuters the extracted uranium, after being processed, could be used as fuel for the Bushehr power plant. Iran has signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and has said it might build further nuclear power plants to meet its booming electricity demand.