Iranian experts began work on uranium enrichment at the Fordow plant at least a week ago.
International Atomic Energy Agency experts have already visited the plant,
Associated Press reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources in Vienna.
On Sunday, Western media, with reference to an interview with the
head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), Fereydoon Abbasi
Davani, said that the company will begin to produce enriched uranium
with the degree of enrichment from 3.5% to 20% "in the near future,"
RIA Novosti reports.
In turn, two diplomatic sources on condition of anonymity told Associated Press news agency
on Monday that Tehran has already startedthe cycle of enrichment at the Fordow plant, which
now has no less than 348 enrichment centrifuges. According to the agency, the diplomats
referred to IAEA inspectors who visited the Iranian nuclear facility last week.
In mid-September 2011 the head of the IAEO, Abbasi Davani, told a press
conference in Vienna, where the IAEA General Conference was being held,
said that the Fordow plant, located near the city of Qom, would be launched
within six months. He said that Tehran "is not in a hurry" to
implement the program to instal centrifuges at Fordow, because Iran
already has a sufficient supply of uranium enriched to 20%.
Abbasi Davani added that Tehran has "no intention of increasing the
percentage of enrichment (of uranium present in the country) above the
current level of 20%."
Tehran notified the IAEA about the construction near Qom
(approximately 100 kilometers south of Tehran) of the second uranium
enrichment plant at Fordow in September 2009.
