EXCLUSIVE - Iran installs advanced nuclear centrifuges

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuges in its key uranium enrichment complex, accelerating activity that could give it the means to make atom bombs in future if it chooses, diplomats said on Thursday.

Iran says it wants to produce nuclear fuel only for electricity so it can export more oil. But has been hit with three sets of United Nations sanctions for hiding the work until 2003, failing to prove to inspectors since then that it is wholly peaceful, and refusing to suspend the disputed programme.

Iran launched 3,000 centrifuges, a basis for industrial scale enrichment, in the underground Natanz production hall last year. But they are a 1970s-vintage design prone to breakdown so Iran began testing an advanced version in Natanz's pilot wing.

After a pause of several months, Iran has now assembled more than 300 centrifuges divided into two cascades (interlinked networks) to expand beyond 3,000, diplomats with access to intelligence told Reuters.

"One of the two cascades is using the advanced model, the other the older one. There are more machines in the advanced cascade than the set of 164 typically used for the (older model)," said one of the diplomats, who asked for anonymity because the details remained confidential.

"Iran may not have had enough of the advanced one ready yet to put into two cascades. But they wanted to show the world they could go beyond the threshold of 3,000 now enriching at Natanz (despite international pressure) to stop."

Analysts believe Iran aims to gradually replace its start-up "P-1" centrifuge with "a new generation" it adapted from a "P-2" design, obtained via black markets from the West and able to enrich uranium 2-3 times faster than its older counterpart.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA told Reuters he was unaware of new progress at the Natanz enrichment complex, which is ringed by anti-aircraft guns against a feared U.S. bombing.