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Iran readies uranium for nuke enrichment-Diplomats
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-20 00:10
Iran is preparing large amounts of uranium for enrichment, a process that can
be used to make nuclear weapons, days before its promise to freeze all such
activities takes effect, Western diplomats said on Friday.
"The Iranians
are producing UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) like hell," a diplomat on the governing
board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters. "The
machines are running."
UF6 is the form of uranium that is fed into gas centrifuges, which purify
uranium for use as fuel in nuclear power plants or weapons, by spinning at
supersonic speeds. Iran had promised the European Union it would freeze
enrichment as of Nov 22.
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