The head of Iran's nuclear program said Monday his country hopes to begin construction within a year on two uranium enrichment facilities, which it plans to build deep inside mountains to protect them from possible attack.
Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also Iran's vice president, said Tehran intends to use its more advanced centrifuges at the new sites, a decision that could add to growing concerns in the West over Tehran's program because the technology would allow Iran to accelerate the pace of its program.
"Hopefully, we may begin construction of two new enrichment sites in the next Iranian year as ordered by the president," Salehi said on Monday. The Iranian calendar year begins March 21.
"As of now, our enrichment sites … will be built inside mountains," Salehi added, according to ISNA.
The decision appears to be aimed at shielding the facilities from potential military attack.
Tehran has already said it may install its more advanced centrifuges at its small enrichment site near the holy city of Qom, which was made public last September. The new centrifuges are more advanced than the decades-old P-1 type centrifuges in use at the country's main enrichment facility at Natanz, in central Iran.
More than 8,600 centrifuges have been set up in Natanz, but only about 3,800 are actively enriching uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The facility will eventually house 54,000 centrifuges, Today’s Zaman reported.
