IAEA: Iran racing to expand enrichment at underground plant

Iran is racing ahead with a planned expansion of uranium enrichment with advanced centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz and now intends to go even further, a confidential U.N. nuclear watchdog report seen by Reuters showed.

The third of three cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-6 centrifuges recently installed at the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz has now come onstream, the International Atomic Energy Agency report said, adding that Iran had informed the agency it plans to add an extra three cascades of IR-2m centrifuges on top of the 12 already planned there.

One cascade of IR-4 centrifuges and six of IR-2m machines that had not been completed on Aug. 31, the date of the last visit mentioned in the IAEA's last quarterly report on the issue, had now been fully installed but not yet used to enrich, the report to member states said.