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Summary Iran has denied the charge of producing Nuclear weapons, saying it wants to produce nuclear energy.
Iran allowed a senior UN nuclear inspector rare access to a facility for developing advanced uranium enrichment machines during a tour of all of the countrys main atomic sites, an Iranian envoy said on Tuesday.Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Irans ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said last weeks visit to Iranian nuclear facilities by IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts showed Tehrans 100 percent transparency and openness.Nackaerts, head of the UN nuclear watchdogs safeguards department, spent five days in Iran on a visit that coincided with a new push by Russia to revive deadlocked diplomatic talks between Tehran and six major powers.Western nations suspect Iran is trying to use its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons. The Islamic Republic has denied the charge, saying it wants to produce nuclear energy.If Iran succeeds in building modernized centrifuge equipment on a large scale, it could significantly speed up production of enriched uranium, which can be used to fuel atomic power plants or provide material for bombs, if refined much further.Tehran has enriched uranium so far primarily with an outmoded vintage of centrifuge based on a 1970s design.Faced with growing Western pressure, Iran has in the past at times shown increased nuclear transparency to help ward off harsher international steps against the country, but without bowing to Western demands that it suspend enrichment.A one-off openness isnt enough, a European diplomat said. I would be amazed if they are changing their policy radically.The IAEA confirmed that Nackaerts had been in Iran but gave no details of his trip. His department is responsible for checking that nuclear material is not used for weapons.Earlier this year, the IAEA said it had been trying since early 2008 to gain access to sites linked to the manufacture of machines used to refine uranium, but Iran had ignored all requests.Nackaerts predecessor, Olli Heinonen, said the last time the agency visited a research and development facility for centrifuges was when he and then-IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei went to a site in Tehran in 2008.It was unclear whether Nackaerts visited the same place.
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