Iran: We're Building a New Nuke Site

Construction to start in March
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 16, 2010 9:56 AM CDT
Iran: We're Building a New Nuke Site
In this Nov. 30, 2009 file photo, Iranian technicians work with foreign colleagues at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, just outside the southern port city of Bushehr, Iran.   (Mehdi Ghasemi)

Iran will begin building a new site to enrich uranium by March, moving ahead with a plan that defies international efforts to curb its nuclear development. Last year Iran claimed it would build 10 new enrichment plants, and today's announcement said the locations for the sites have now been determined but gave almost no details. "Construction of a new uranium enrichment site will begin by the end of (the Iranian) year (March) or early next year," said the country's nuclear chief. "The new enrichment facilities will be built inside mountains."

Iran has an industrial-scale, internationally supervised enrichment site in Natanz, in central Iran, and a smaller one under construction near Qom. The Islamic republic said it needs 20 large-scale sites to meet domestic electricity needs of 20,000 megawatts in the next 15 years. The UN Security Council has already passed four sets of sanctions against Iran to try and force it to stop enriching uranium.
(More Iran stories.)

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