Iran upgrading nuclear program: IAEA

Tehran has reportedly upgraded its nuclear program by adding advanced uranium enrichment facilities and building a plutonium-producing reactor according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA report reflects the increased international concerns about the potential proliferation dangers it represents as the completion date approaches, the Huffington Post reports.

According to the report, the concern of the West lies in the fact that uranium enrichment will be even more dangerous as it is further advanced than the reactor and already has the capacity to enrich to weapons-grade uranium.

The IAEA said that Tehran had installed close to 700 high-tech centrifuges used for uranium enrichment, which can produce the core of nuclear weapons.

It also said that Tehran had added hundreds of older-generation machines at its main enrichment site to bring the total number to more than 13,000.

West critics say that the reactor at Arak, in central Iran, will be able to produce plutonium for several bombs a year once it starts up.

However, Iran denies that either its enrichment program or the reactor will be used to make nuclear arms despite IAEA's claims that the Iranian technicians already had taken delivery of a huge reactor vessel to contain the facility's fuel.

International nations fear that installations of the new IR-2m centrifuges will provoke Iran to make nuclear arms, because they are believed to be able to enrich two to five times faster than Tehran's old machines, mass-producing the centrifuges and making its enrichment program much more potent.

The report also said that Iran plans to keep its stockpile of uranium enriched to a level which is only a step away from weapons-grade to below the amount needed for a nuclear bomb.

Iranian nuclear chief Fereidoun Abbasi said that more than 3,000 high-tech centrifuges have already been produced and will soon replace its older-generation enriching machines at Natanz, south of Tehran.

But Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh described the allegations against Iran as 'forged and fabricated'.