Iran said it will soon begin mass production of centrifuges capable of enriching uranium, the most controversial part of its nuclear programme, three times faster than existing systems.

Atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the Islamic republic also now possessed the technical know-how to manufacture the fuel pellets required to power atomic reactors.

"The mass production of second generation centrifuges will begin in the coming months," Salehi said on state television late Saturday.

On Friday Iran unveiled a third generation centrifuge it said can enrich uranium six times faster than the IR-1 system at its plant in the central city of Natanz.

The Natanz facility has a capacity of 60,000 centrifuges, and Iran has been steadily enriching uranium there for years in defiance of three sets of UN sanctions and threat of a fourth.

Uranium enrichment lies at the heart of the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear programme as the material can be used either to power a nuclear reactor or to make an atom bomb.

The enrichment method used by Iran is a classic type in which uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas is whizzed around in a centrifuge at supersonic speeds to separate the precious U-235 isotope from the denser U-238.

Salehi said Iranian scientists would inject UF6 gas in the third generation centrifuge in few months, adding however, "maybe it needs a year for us to witness a chain of them."

"Once our appraisal of third generation (centrifuges) is complete and we reach its mass production, the manufacture of the second generation machine will be stopped."

The UN nuclear watchdog reported in February that Iran has installed 8,610 first generation IR-1 centrifuges at Natanz.

Western nations led by Washington suspect Iran's nuclear programme masks a weapons drive. Iran denies these accusations, saying it is enriching uranium only to produce electricity for a growing population.

On Sunday, parliament speaker Ali Larijani reiterated Iranian denial by quoting a previous fatwa by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei which said "using weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear (arms) is haram (forbidden)."

Salehi also justified Tehran's pursuit of advanced centrifuges, saying "Americans are using advanced centrifuges" too.

He dismissed Western claims Iran lacked the know-how to make the fuel pellets required to power a reactor, such as its Tehran research facility.

"They said: you can't make pellets. But now I can say with certainty that we have the technical knowledge to make fuel pellets," Salehi said.

Russia and France are ready to supply fuel for the Tehran reactor if Iran ships its low-enriched uranium abroad, but the UN-drafted deal is deadlocked over differences between the two sides.

Iran has defiantly started producing the fuel itself, but France says Tehran lacks the technology to convert the material into the fuel pellets needed for the facility which makes medical isotopes.

Salehi said Iran was close to mastering the fuel pellet technology and on Friday the Islamic republic unveiled what it claimed was a "virtual" model of the pellets using copper.

"We are going slowly. In the next stage instead of copper as virtual fuel we will use a material close to uranium and in the following stage we will use uranium itself," he said, adding the pellet manufacturing facility was also nearly ready.

"If the Western countries had not created problems, we would have been able to export radioisotopes" by now from the Tehran reactor, he said.

Salehi said to prevent such obstacles, Iran was building the 40 MW heavy water reactor in the central city of Arak.

"It will be online in three to four years," he said.

World powers fear that Iran could configure the Arak plant in a way to help make an atom bomb, but Tehran says the reactor is planned to make isotopes only for agricultural and health purposes.

Iran allowed UN inspectors to visit the Arak facility in August, 2009.

earlier related report
Defiant Iran unveils faster enrichment centrifuge
Tehran (AFP) April 9, 2010 - Iran unveiled a faster centrifuge for enriching uranium on Friday, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned major powers mulling fresh UN sanctions that it would not give in to threats.

Western governments seized on Iran's defiance as evidence of its "nefarious" intent as they sought consensus at the Security Council on a tough new package of measures to secure compliance with repeated ultimatums for a freeze on uranium enrichment.

Ahmadinejad's comments marking Iran's National Nuclear Day came a day after China agreed to join five other major powers for more talks on a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran, rowing back on its previous opposition.

Atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran had successfully tested the new centrifuges which are capable of enriching uranium six times faster than its existing ones at a plant in Natanz, south of Tehran.

"The scientists of our country have been able to design a third generation of centrifuges, which successfully went through final mechanical tests," Salehi said.

"These machines would have (isotope) separation capacity... approximately six times faster than the earlier ones, thus increasing the output" of enriched uranium, he added.

Salehi, who said in December that the new centrifuges would go into production by next March, also announced that Iran had discovered new uranium deposits in the central province of Yazd.

Uranium enrichment is the sensitive process that lies at the heart of Western concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. The process can produce the fuel for nuclear reactors but in highly extended form can also make the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

Russia has joined Western governments in backing further UN sanctions but Ahmadinejad vowed that such pressure would have no effect.

"These kinds of actions will make Iranians more determined," the hardliner said.

"For example, four months ago we had no intention of making 20 percent (enriched uranium) fuel. But when they talked of threats, we went ahead."

Ahmadinejad gave instructions on February 7 for Iran to begin enriching uranium to the 20 percent level required for a Tehran medical research reactor after long-running talks on a deal for the major powers to supply the fuel failed to bear fruit.

Western governments slammed the move as a significant step towards the 93 percent level required for making an atomic bomb but Iran again strongly denied any military ambition for its nuclear programme.

"We are against nuclear weapons... we consider nuclear weapons to be inhuman," Ahmadinejad said on Friday.

Both Britain and the United States expressed strong scepticism in the light of Iran's intensification of its efforts to master the nuclear fuel cycle.

"If Iran wants the international community to believe what it says, that it has peaceful intentions with respect to its nuclear programme, then Iran has no need for a third generation, or faster centrifuge," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

"We have to conclude that Iran has nefarious intentions in its nuclear programme," he added.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have deep concerns about Iran's nuclear programme and its failure to reassure the international community that the programme is purely for peaceful purposes."

London and Washington have stepped up their lobbying at the United Nations for tough new sanctions against Tehran and on Thursday won Beijing's support for further talks on a fresh package.

China, which is a major trade partner of Iran, had previously resisted calls for new sanctions, arguing instead for further diplomacy.

Ahmadinejad again criticised the West on Friday for supporting Israel, which has Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear arsenal.

"There are some phoney regimes who have stockpiles, but you are supporting them. Okay, if you are for non-proliferation... disarm yourselves and then your friends," he said.