Iran announces nuclear advance

NATANZ, Iran, April 10 (UPI) -- The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization used the nation's nuclear holiday to announce plans for a major planned upgrade at a uranium enrichment facility.

"We have invested and planned for 50,000 centrifuges in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility," AEO President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Monday on Iranian Press TV.

Iran has rejected U.N. Security Council demands that the country halt enrichment of uranium. Iranian officials insist that its nuclear program is for energy production, although other nations fear that it is geared toward producing weapons.

Aghazadeh said at celebrations of National Nuclear Day that Natanz has 3,000 centrifuges installed but had not announced it because he did not want to "create ambiguity about the number of the centrifuges."

"I did not want others to later take advantage of (the information) that Iran has completed 3,000 centrifuges and (to assume) that the process is ended," Aghazadeh said, Iranian Press TV reported.

He also said Iran will announce an international deal for the construction of two nuclear power plants within the next few days.