DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - THE WEST/IRAN: U.N. SANCTIONS MEAN NOTHING, IRAN CONTINUES TO MAKE PROGRESS IN ITS QUEST FOR THE ISLAMIC NUKE

Iran making progress in enriching uranium: diplomats

Iran has made progress in enriching uranium despite UN sanctions against this strategic work, UN nuclear inspectors have learned, diplomats told AFP Tuesday.

The news shows Iran is moving towards meeting the claim made in April by its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Tehran had achieved an "industrial scale" of enrichment.

Enrichment is the process that makes fuel for nuclear power reactors or, in highly refined form, the raw material for atom bombs.

"They are speeding up some centrifuges and beginning to enrich towards an industrial level" at an underground plant in Natanz, said a diplomat who closely follows Iran's nuclear program.

Iran previously had been running the centrifuges slowly, as many were breaking down, limiting the production of enriched uranium to what were considered research levels, the diplomat said.

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