SAGHAND, Iran - Iran will begin extracting uranium from deep under its central desert in less than two years, an official told The Associated Press on Saturday during an unprecedented tour of the country's uranium mine.
Iran maintains its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful, despite U.S. charges it seeks nuclear weapons, and is pressing ahead with plans to control the whole nuclear fuel cycle from mining uranium ore to enriching uranium to be used in reactors.
Saturday's tour of the Saghand mine, some 300 miles south of Tehran, was the first time Iran has allowed an international news agency to visit a site related to its highly ambitious program to develop the entire fuel cycle, from extracting uranium ore to enriching nuclear fuel. Iran wants to prove it has nothing hide, but serious questions have been raised about its nuclear program.
Iran's critics argue that a country that controls the fuel cycle will inevitably be able to produce a nuclear bomb if or when it decides to do so.
The rest of the article is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...a/iran_nuclear
Iran to Extract Own Uranium
Threaded Mode