TEHRAN - Iran will in the "near future" start enriching uranium deep inside a mountain, a senior official said, a move likely to further antagonize Western powers which suspect Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons capability. Iran has said for months that it is preparing to conduct uranium enrichment at Fordow, a protected site deep inside a mountain near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom in central Iran. Get the Israel Hayom newsletter sent to your mailbox! The inauguration of the site could block fresh nuclear talks with major powers aimed at resolving Iran's nuclear row through diplomacy. Iran has called for talks on its nuclear program with the permanent members of the Security Council and Germany, which have been stalled for a year. Diplomats told Reuters on Friday that Iran was believed to have begun feeding uranium gas into centrifuges in Fordow in late December as part of final preparations to use the machines for enrichment. Iran is already refining uranium to a fissile purity of 20% - far more than the 3.5% level usually required to power nuclear energy plants - above ground at another location. Diplomats say it is moving this higher-grade enrichment to Fordow in an apparent bid to better protect the work against any enemy attacks. It also plans to sharply boost output capacity. The U.S. and Israel, Iran's arch foes, have not ruled out strikes against the Islamic state if diplomacy fails to resolve the dispute. Iran has been hit by four rounds of U.N. sanctions and the U.S. and the EU have imposed increasingly tight economic sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. Iran disclosed the existence of Fordow to the IAEA only in September 2009 after learning that Western intelligence agencies had detected it.
A decision by the Islamic Republic to conduct sensitive atomic activities at an underground site - offering better protection against any enemy attacks - could complicate diplomatic efforts to resolve the long-running row peacefully.
"The Fordow nuclear enrichment plant will be operational in the near future ... 20 percent, 3.5% and 4% enriched uranium can be produced at this site," said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, the Kayhan daily reported.
The U.S. and its allies say Iran is trying to build bombs, but Tehran insists its nuclear program is aimed at generating power.
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