Tehran's nuclear program still in early stages

Iran is still only operating several hundred centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, despite its claims to have activated 3,000 of the devices, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency told reporters on Apr. 12. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced earlier this week that the Natanz facility had begun "industrial-scale" production of nuclear fuel in a major advance in Iran's uranium enrichment program. Workers were said to have begun injecting uranium gas into a new array of 3,000 centrifuges, a large step up from the 328 centrifuges known to be operating at Natanz. Iran aims to operate more than 50,000 of the devices at the site. But Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), played down the extent of Iran's progress at Natanz. "Iran is still just at the beginning stages in setting up its Natanz enrichment facility," ElBaradei told reporters in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. "The talk of building a facility with 50,000 centrifuges is just at the beginning. "It has not been demonstrated until now that there are underground nuclear facilities in Iran working covertly, and Iran doesn't have the material to make a nuclear weapon." However, he voiced concern over Iran's nuclear program, saying that it was "complicated." He also demanded that Iran show transparency over its plans to reassure the international community that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes. IAEA inspectors visited Natanz a week ago, and two more IAEA inspectors arrived in the country on Apr. 10 and are due to view the facility in a few days.