Iran Opens Two Nuclear Sites On 'Atomic Day'

Iran has announced it has opened two nuclear sites, just days after talks with world powers to limit the country's atomic programme.

State television said that operations are under way at a uranium production facility in Ardakan and at the country's biggest uranium mine at Saghand.

Tehran's announcement was made to mark the country's Atomic Energy Technology Day and comes just four days after talks with six world powers over curbing its nuclear ambitions.

The mines in the city of Saghand in central Iran operate 1,150ft (350m) underground and are within 75 miles (120km) of the new yellowcake production facility in the city of Ardakan, according to the report.

It gave few details of the Ardakan facility but said it had an estimated 60 tonnes of output of yellowcake, which is an impure state of uranium oxide later used in enrichment processes.

The country already has a number of smaller uranium mines and processing facilities.

Workers at a uranium production plant near Isfahan in 2005

In October, a report from the Institute for Scientific and International Security warned that Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb within two to four months.

The study, which used figures from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it would take a further 10 months to actually build the nuclear weapon.

Its conclusion echoed a warning in September from then US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta who said Tehran could have a nuclear weapon within a year if it wanted to.

The US has come under increasing pressure from Israel to take military action over Iran's nuclear movements as Tehran remains defiant in the face of sanctions.

However, the US favours talks.

Last week, the five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, known as the P5+1, met with Iranian negotiators in the Kazakh city of Almaty in a bid to coax Iran into curbing its programme in exchange for the easing of some sanctions.

The Israeli PM explains Iran's nuclear programme to the UN

Iran continues to insist the programme is for peaceful purposes. However, it is looking to expand its own enrichment programme amid UN sanctions that prevent it buying in nuclear material.

David Cameron last week named the country as a potential atomic threat as he argued that Britain should retain its own nuclear defence system, Trident.

Iran enriches uranium to both 3.5 and 20% levels in its Natanz and Fordo enrichment facilities.

Uranium purified at high levels can be used in a nuclear weapon.

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