伊朗在地下核設施開始鈾濃縮活動

Diplomats in Vienna say Iran has started uranium Enrichment at a facility where the material can be upgraded quickly for potential use in a nuclear bomb. The diplomats close to the international monitoring of nuclear programs said Monday that Iranian centrifuges were refining uranium to a purity of 20 percent at the underground Fordo complex near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom. The report increases international concerns that Iran is developing an atomic weapons program. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful. The Fordo complex is located beneath a mountain and is better protected from potential air strikes by nations opposed to the Iranian nuclear program. Iran said previously it was preparing to move its highest-grade enrichment work to Fordo from its an above-ground complex in the central city of Natanz.

Iran says its nuclear program is designed only to generate electricity and material for medical research. Most of the work at the Natanz facility has involved refining uranium to a relatively low purity of 3.5 percent. Enrichment to the 20 percent level at the Fordo complex could reduce the time needed for Iran to further refine the material to the 90 percent purity required for nuclear weapons. The United States and its ally Israel have not ruled out military action to stop the program, which they suspect is aimed at developing a capability to produce nuclear weapons. Israel sees a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to the Jewish state's existence.維也納的外交官員說，伊朗開始在一個設施內進行鈾濃縮活動。在那裏，鈾有可能會很快升級，將來用於核彈。與國際核項目監督機構關係密切的外交官們星期一說，伊朗位於什葉派聖城庫姆附近的地下核設施弗多的離心機已經可以提煉出純度達到20%的鈾。上述報道加劇了國際社會對伊朗研發核武器的擔憂，但是伊朗表示其核項目是和平的。弗多核設施座落在一座山的下面，受到嚴密防守，以防範反對伊朗核項目的一些國家可能發動的空襲。伊朗先前也表示，一直在準備把更高級別的鈾濃縮活動從納坦茲的地面工廠轉移到弗多的地下設施。

伊朗表示，其核項目是爲了發電併爲醫療研究提供材料。納坦茲核設施的主要工作圍繞提煉純度爲3.5%的濃縮鈾展開。但是弗多的濃縮鈾純度達到20%，這會使伊朗在更短時間內進一步提煉濃縮鈾，使其純度達到武器級鈾所需要的90%的純度。美國和以色列沒有排除採取軍事行動阻止伊朗核項目的可能。他們懷疑伊朗在研發核武器。以色列認爲擁有核武器的伊朗會對以色列的生存構成威脅。