The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency reported Friday that Iran said it is building a second nuclear fuel enrichment plant and that the agency has asked for immediate inspection of the plant.
"On September 21, Iran informed the IAEA in a letter that a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction in the country," the watchdog’s spokesman Marc Vidricaire said in a statement.
"Iran assured the agency in the letter that ‘further complementary information will be provided in an appropriate and due time’," Vidricaire said.
"In response, the IAEA has requested Iran to provide specific information and access to the facility as soon as possible. This will allow the agency to assess safeguards verification requirements for the facility."
So far, Iran has only had one uranium enrichment plant in operation, in Natanz.
The IAEA said Iran had told its former Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei in a letter that the plant would enrich uranium only to a level needed to generate electricity.
"The letter stated that the enrichment level would be up to 5.0 percent," which is a low level of enrichment and not a sufficiently high to make the fissile material for an atomic bomb.
"The agency also understands from Iran that no nuclear material has been introduced into the facility," Vidricaire said.
The agency requested specific information and an immediate inspection of the plant to ensure it was for peaceful purposes.
Low enriched uranium is used to make nuclear fuel.
Expert-level talks
Meanwhile, Tehran made a surprise offer to arrange a meeting between Iranian and foreign nuclear experts was welcomed by analysts Thursday but got a cool reception from the United States and the European Union.
In an interview with the Washington Post and with Newsweek magazine carried Wednesday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said Iranian nuclear experts should meet with counterparts from the United States and other countries to allay fears about his country’s nuclear program.
"I think this is a very solid proposal which gives a good opportunity for a start" to build trust between the United States and Iran and "engage in cooperation," he noted.
Iran has not previously allowed such a meeting and it would mark a historic first.
"This is clearly something new," said Jacqueline Shire, an analyst with the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "I want to be very optimistic and say it reflects a new approach."
"Ahmadinejad is definitely softening his rhetoric. We don’t know yet if he’s beginning to soften his positions," noted Joe Cirincione, chairman of the Ploughshares Fund, a public grant-making foundation focused on nuclear weapons policy and conflict resolution.
"But his latest offer is the first real concession that he’s made. He’s under intense international and domestic pressure. He’s trying to relieve that pressure," he added.
Cirincione noted the expert-level meeting had been a long-standing request from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.