Nuke watchdog finds more enriched uranium in Iran

Nuke watchdog finds more enriched uranium in Iran

Agencies, Vienna/New York

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has found further traces of enriched uranium in Iran, though this discovery could support Tehran's explanation that the traces are due to contamination, diplomats told Reuters.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the diplomats said the new traces of highly-enriched uranium were found at the Kalaye Electric Co.

Earlier this year, the UN inspectors found traces of enriched uranium at another nuclear site in Iran, raising suspicions that Iran has been secretly purifying uranium for use in an atomic weapon.

Tehran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, has blamed the earlier find, at Natanz, on machinery it says it purchased abroad. This explanation has met with skepticism inside and outside the IAEA.

In New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said on Wednesday that his country would not give up its uranium enrichment program, insisting it was purely for civilian purposes.

"It's a matter of national pride to have this capability, this technology especially when it's produced domestically. This does not mean that producing (nuclear) weapons will be on our agenda," he told a business and security forum in New York.

"The capability is the important thing, that we can produce enriched uranium," Kharazi added.

However, one Western based diplomat said failure to get a positive result from samples taken at Kalaye would have been surprising, as this is where Iran said it stored the centrifuge components which it says were contaminated.

"Not getting a positive result would have been odd," the diplomat said. "This was the facility where components used in the centrifuges were said to be stored and manufactured."

Another Western diplomat disagreed, saying that this finding would probably not vindicate Iran, but complicated its explanation.

"This finding may actually raise even more questions about the discovery of enriched uranium," the diplomat told Reuters.

IAEA officials were not immediately available for comment.

Centrifuges are used to purify uranium for use in nuclear fuel -- or in weapons.

Iran has until Oct. 31 to enable the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to prove it has no secret nuclear weapons program, as the United States alleges, or it will be reported to the UN Security Council for possible economic sanctions.