IRAN: IRAN IS SPEEDING AHEAD TOWARDS THEIR PRIZE, NUKES & ARMAGEDDON

Iran's nuclear program progressing, U.N. agency says
The IAEA reports that Tehran has increased its ability to enrich uranium.
By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff WriterNovember 15, 2006

SANCERRE, FRANCE — Iran has slowly but steadily increased its ability to enrich uranium despite international calls to halt its nuclear activities, experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency say in a report released Tuesday.

The report, which became public before a meeting next week by the agency's board of governors, emphasizes that Iran's refusal to answer inspectors' questions about its nuclear activities makes it impossible for the IAEA "to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's program."

The report also notes that traces of plutonium have been found on storage barrels at a waste facility, in addition to a previously reported finding of highly enriched uranium at the site.

Iran had kept its nuclear program secret for more than 18 years, until 2002, and many questions remain unanswered about whether its effort had, or continues to have, a military goal. Highly enriched uranium is the fissile material needed to make a nuclear bomb.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did little to reassure world leaders Tuesday. He said at a news conference in Tehran that there would be "the big celebration of Iran's full nuclearization in the current year."

Iran's current calendar year ends March 20.

Iranian officials have said Tehran would have 3,000 centrifuges, used to enrich uranium, operating by the end of their calendar year. Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the goal was eventually to have 60,000. "We are at the beginning of a wave," he said at the gathering, reported by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Although that goal is possible, it would appear to require a drastic acceleration in Iran's program.

The IAEA inspectors are reluctant to make any predictions about the speed with which Iran might move ahead.

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1) Iran's nuclear program progressing, U.N. agency says