By Michael Adler
VIENNA, Feb 2 2007 - Iran is moving into the final stages of setting up an industrial-level site to enrich uranium in defiance of UN demands and is blocking access to UN inspectors, diplomats here said Friday.
The news triggered a swift denial from Tehran.
The escalation in the international showdown over an Iranian nuclear programme which the United States says hides a secret weapons programme comes after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions in December to force Tehran to halt enrichment, which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.
Diplomats at the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told AFP that Iran had by this week begun installation of 3,000 centrifuges, the machines which enrich uranium, in a huge underground bunker at its main nuclear facility in the central town of Natanz.
It had also this week stopped visiting UN inspectors from installing surveillance cameras in the bunker where the production lines, or cascades, of centrifuges are being set up, the diplomats said.
A high-ranking Iranian official in Tehran denied both allegations, saying "within the framework of Iran's commitment to the IAEA, there is no and there will be no restriction of inspectors' access."
"We have not begun installing new centrifuges," said the official, who asked not to be named.
Iran, OPEC's second largest oil exporter, insists its nuclear programme is solely aimed at producing energy for electricity.
A diplomat in Vienna said construction had started at Natanz, including laying down piping and bringing in centrifuge parts, "but the cascades have not yet been assembled."
Another diplomat said however that some centrifuges were already mounted and that Iran was moving "to install as many centrifuges as fast as possible" to have the facility working by mid-February.
Both diplomats declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the information.
Iranian leaders have said Iran would make a major announcement on its nuclear programme, possibly on February 11 after anniversary celebrations for the Islamic revolution.
According to one of the diplomats, Tehran intends to present the international community with a "fait accompli", whereby it has moved beyond research levels of enrichment and has an industrial capacity.
In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the reports -- if confirmed -- "would demonstrate that the Iranian government continues to disregard the will of the international community and the United Nations."
Iran is building cascades in units of 164 centrifuges each and already has two such cascades running above-ground at a pilot enrichment plant at Natanz, producing only small amounts of enriched uranium.
But 3,000 centrifuges in the underground plant, protected in a bunker from possible air attack, could produce enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb in nine to 11 months, the London IISS think-tank has said.
Iran has told the IAEA it eventually wants to install over 50,000 centrifuges in Natanz.
Iran could be only two or three years away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon, IISS director John Chipman said Wednesday.
Diplomats said Iran had this week stopped UN inspectors from installing surveillance cameras at the underground site, where the Iranians had announced the start of preliminary work in February 2006.
The Iranians are "not allowing the IAEA to install the cameras inside the cascade halls in Natanz," a diplomat who closely watches IAEA verification work said.
"The Iranians are now willing to accept the installation of cameras only outside the cascade halls, which will not enable the IAEA to monitor the entire uranium enrichment process," the diplomat said.
The IAEA monitors the above-ground pilot site with cameras and is entitled to the same presence at the underground facility.
But the Iranians "have not yet introduced nuclear material (feedstock uranium gas) into the centrifuges at the underground site, so there is still time" to get IAEA access, a diplomat said.
