By Nasser Karimi
Iran's recent claim it was testing a more sophisticated type of nuclear enrichment centrifuge could mean the country has significantly sped up the process of making fuel for power plants or bombs, analysts familiar with the technology said Monday.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday that the Islamic republic was testing the P-2 centrifuge - a more sophisticated type. A day earlier, he had trumpeted Iran's success in enriching a small amount of uranium using a less-sophisticated type of centrifuge.
The president's words were Iran's first acknowledgment it is working with the faster P-2 and came after the country told the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency it had given up all such work three years ago. It is not clear if Iran had been doing work all along on the more-sophisticated model, or had recently restarted efforts.
Either way, the president's assertion is sure to raise concerns that Iran might have a more sophisticated program than believed. The International Atomic Energy Agency and some independent groups have long questioned if Iran has a parallel, secret nuclear program that is farther along.
On the other hand, analysts familiar with the country's technology also say Iran's president seems to be deliberately exaggerating the country's capabilities in recent weeks - perhaps to boost domestic political support or to persuade the IAEA to back off.
IAEA officials refused to comment Monday in Vienna, Austria. But a Vienna-based diplomat familiar with the IAEA's investigation of Tehran's nuclear program said Ahmadinejad's comments about the P-2 would come up in discussions between Iranian and agency officials later this week.
"Our centrifuges are P-1 type. P-2, which has quadruple the capacity, now is under the process of research and test in the country," Ahmadinejad told the students in Khorasan in northeastern Iran.
His comments were subsequently posted on the official presidential Web site.
Iran's move to enrich uranium has come in defiance of demands from the United States, Europe and the IAEA.
Another Vienna-based diplomat - who also demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with the media - said it was unclear how far along Iran's P-2 work was.
But if Ahmadinejad's comments are confirmation that Tehran has secretly developed its P-2 program over the past few years, that could mean it will be able to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium faster and in greater quantities than previously believed, he said.
The latest estimate from the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies foresees that Iran could not create a bomb before the next decade. But that analysis is based on Tehran's known enrichment program - which does not include P-2 efforts.
The P-1 centrifuges used by Iran for small-scale enrichment are considered an inferior model, said David Albright, a former U.N. inspector and head of the Institute for Science and International Security.
But Iran also is known to have received plans or designs in the mid-1990s for the German-made P-2 centrifuges through a black-market network run by A.Q. Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. It is not known, however, if Iran was ever able to replicate those designs and make a P-2.
Ahmadinejad did not provide any details in his speech to the students. Iran previously told the IAEA the only work it had done on the P-2 design was carried out between 2002 and 2003 and was very limited. It also said all the work was halted in 2003, when it went back to the easier P-1 design.
But the IAEA has repeatedly questioned that claim and accused Iran of not coming clean on past efforts.
A private group, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, also said in a recent report that the fact that Iran had hedged on providing information about the P-2 centrifuges raised worries that the more advanced machines might be the basis of a secret program.
The United Nations has demanded Iran give up all uranium enrichment amid accusations from the United States and Europe that the country seeks to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies those claims, saying the aim of its nuclear program is to generate electricity.
The Bush administration has said it had a "number of tools," including a military option, if Tehran did not cease uranium enrichment activities.
On Monday, Iran said threats would not affect its decision over whether to continue its nuclear program, state media reported.
"Threats are not effective," the television quoted Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, as saying.
Last month, the U.N. Security Council demanded that Iran stop all enrichment activity by April 28 because of suspicions the program really aims to make weapons. But Iran has rejected the demand and announced last week that, for the first time, it had enriched uranium with 164 of the less-sophisticated P-1 centrifuges.
Last week, Larijani made no concessions during talks with Mohamed ElBaradei, the U.N. nuclear agency chief, who was trying to head off a confrontation with the Security Council while visiting Tehran.
Meanwhile, the state news agency also quoted Parviz Fattah, Iran's energy minister, as saying the government has plans to build 20 nuclear power plants.
Iran says it is enriching uranium to a low degree to be used as fuel for generating power in a nuclear power reactor. Higher-level enrichment makes uranium suitable for a nuclear bomb, but Western experts familiar with Iran's program say the country still is far from producing weapons-grade uranium.
Associated Press reporter George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.
