Iran prepared to up Uranium Enrichment, say diplomats

Iran is poised for a major technological update of its uranium enrichment programme, allowing it to vastly increase production of the material that can be used for both reactor fuel and nuclear warheads, diplomats said on Thursday. The diplomats said that Iran last week told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it wants to install thousands of high-technology machines at its main enriching site at Natanz, in central Iran. The machines are estimated to be able to enrich up to five times faster than the present equipment. Iran argues it has a right to enrich for a civilian nuclear power programme. But suspicion persists that the real aim is nuclear weapons, because it hid much of its programme until it was revealed from the outside more than a decade ago.