TEHRAN, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Iran is pushing ahead with building 3,000 centrifuges to separate nuclear material, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday.
"We are moving toward the production of nuclear fuel, and we need 3,000 or more centrifuges for uranium enrichment to achieve that goal," Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said.
"All nuclear activities in Iran are conducted under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. We are moving toward our goal and if they [the West] try to lay obstacles for us, then we will overcome them," Elham said according to the report.
"Iran launched a second experimental chain of 164 centrifuges at its pilot nuclear facility at Natanz in October, and said it will have a total of 3,000 centrifuges there by next March. The long-term target is 60,000, enough to advance to industrial-scale enrichment," RIA Novosti said.
Iran is continuing with its ambitious program to enrich uranium, creating nuclear fuel that could used for atomic weapons as well as civilian reactors in defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution passed on Dec. 23 that called on Tehran to suspend all its programs on uranium enrichment.
The U.N. resolution called on all member nations of the world body to suspend any and all contracts with their companies that provided Iran with any of the machinery and raw materials it needed to continue its nuclear program.
