Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Iran reported nearing nuclear capability

|
|
 
  
Published: Oct. 21, 2004 at 12:20 PM

VIENNA, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Iran reportedly is making steady progress toward producing nuclear fuel and could make a significant amount of enriched uranium within a year.

Mastering enrichment would move Tehran a big step closer to being able to build an atomic bomb, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday.

Iran's closely guarded progress, according to new estimates by diplomats, scientists and intelligence officials, already has intensified its confrontation with the United States and other countries that fear it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran insists that its goal is to generate electricity.

Its leaders have so far rejected demands by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States and European countries that they freeze enrichment activities.

The United States and its allies, arguing that the threat is imminent, want the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran.

© 2004 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...