Iran said to test faster centrifuges with uranium

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has introduced small amounts of uranium gas into advanced centrifuges it is testing at its main nuclear complex, diplomats said, in a further step towards gaining the means to develop atom bombs if it later chooses.

A European Union diplomat said the move was a "stunning rejection" of repeated U.N. Security Council demands that Iran suspend sensitive nuclear activity, and could hasten passage of broader sanctions drafted by six world powers.

Iran says it wants to enrich uranium only for electricity so it can export more oil. But it is under sanctions for hiding the programme until 2003, preventing U.N. inspectors since then from verifying it is wholly peaceful, and refusing to suspend it.

Diplomats familiar with U.N. nuclear watchdog inspections disclosed last week that Iran had begun "dry runs", without nuclear material, of a more efficient, durable centrifuge to replace an erratic old model it now uses to refine uranium.

They said Iran had now begun test-feeding token quantities of uranium "UF6" gas into a few of the "new generation" centrifuges in the pilot wing of the Natanz enrichment complex. No further details were immediately available.

International Atomic Energy Agency officials had no comment, saying details would come in a report IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei will deliver to the Vienna-based agency's 35-nation Board of Governors and the U.N. Security Council next week.

The "IR-2" centrifuge, an adaptation of a Pakistani model whose design Iran obtained in the 1990s from the A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network, could refine uranium 2-3 times as fast as the antiquated model Iran has used to date.

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