Carried an article about this. The reporter said that the enrichment is only at 3.5% at the moment. 80% enrichment is required for weapons grade uranium, so it seems like the Iranians are still a little way off if they are aiming to build a nuclear deterrent.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran's intentions are peaceful

The United States has said Iran is "moving in the wrong direction" after its announcement that it has successfully enriched uranium.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had become the latest nation with "nuclear technology".

A US spokesman said Iran's defiance of UN calls to cease nuclear activities isolated Iran and its people.

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog is visiting Tehran on Wednesday to try to defuse the crisis.

Iran made its announcement on Tuesday, two months after resuming enrichment research in February.

In a televised speech, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology."

We will continue our path until we achieve production of industrial-scale enrichment.

Iran raises nuclear stakes

His audience broke into cheers and chants of "Allahu akbar" (God is great).

Mr Ahmadinejad called on the nation's scientists to press ahead with "industrial-scale enrichment" and urged the West to respect what he called Iran's right to peaceful atomic technology.

He said the "nuclear fuel cycle had been completed" with the enrichment on Sunday at the Natanz plant.

Western powers fear Iran is developing a nuclear bomb.

Last month the UN gave Iran 30 days to halt work or face action, including potential sanctions.

'Defiance'

The US condemned Iran's announcements.

State department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We would have hoped that the Iranian regime would have taken this opportunity to choose a pathway of diplomacy as opposed to the pathway of defiance."

NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE

Mined uranium ore is purified and reconstituted into solid form known as yellowcake.

Yellowcake is converted into a gas by heating it to about 64C (147F)
Gas is fed through centrifuges, where its isotopes separate and process is repeated until uranium is enriched

Low-level enriched uranium is used for nuclear fuel

Highly enriched uranium can be used in nuclear weapons

In depth: Nuclear fuel cycle

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is expected to arrive in Iran on Wednesday to discuss its nuclear programme.

He has to report back to the Security Council at the end of this month, after which it will decide its next month.

Council members Russia and China may object to calls for sanctions from the US and Western countries.

However, some diplomats in Vienna are hoping that Iran's mastery of this technology may make it easier for Tehran to offer concessions without losing face.

They argue that Iran could now decide to suspend uranium enrichment in an attempt to stave off punitive action by the Security Council, says the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna, where the IAEA is based.

Iran said it had operated 164 centrifuges, creating the cascade requred to achieve "industrial output" of enriched uranium.

But the process would only create the low-level enrichment needed for nuclear fuel.

Iran would need thousands of centrifuges to create the highly enriched uranium needed for nuclear weapons.

Experts say Iran is years away from having a nuclear bomb.

BBC

Iran, like all nations who have signed the non-proliferation treaty, has the right to enrich uranium for energy. It has broken no laws, has UN inspectors at their nuclear sites, and, until Bush co started rattling their sabers, had even signed on to very intrusive inspection regimes (inspections that the U.S. and the rest of the nuclear powers would never submit to).

The only reason this is bad is that it doesn't allow the big powers to bully Iran to feed their oil addiction.

IAEA says cannot confirm Iran's enrichment claim
Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:55am ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday he could not yet confirm if Iran had enriched uranium to 3.5 percent, the level used to fuel nuclear power stations.

"I cannot confirm that. Our inspectors have taken samples. They will report to the (IAEA) board," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said when asked if he could confirm if Iran had enriched uranium to 3.5 percent, as it had claimed.

ElBaradei was speaking following talks with top officials in Tehran to discuss the nuclear program after Iran said it had enriched uranium to a low-level and planned industrial-scale production, in defiance of U.N. demands.

The West says Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran says its program is only for generating electricity.

"I look forward to Iran (working) closely with us to resolve the remaining, outstanding issues," ElBaradei said.

After three years of intensive probes, the IAEA has said it still cannot verify that Iran's nuclear program is entirely peaceful, but they have also found no hard proof of efforts to build atomic bombs.

ElBaradei held talks with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

What is the economic significance of enriching your own Uranium? Does Iran have mines? Is this about who gets the money?

We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science. - General Education Board Letter #1, 1906, Rockefeller Foundation.