Report: Uranium enrichment begins at new Iranian site

January 9, 2012 
CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/09/world/meast/iran-nuclear/

CNN) -- Iran started enriching uranium at a new nuclear facility in the north that is immune to any military attack, according to a fundamentalist newspaper with ties to the nation's supreme leader.
Based on reports we received yesterday, Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility at the height of the threats by foreign enemies, the semiofficial Kayhan newspaper said Sunday.
The Fordo nuclear enrichment plant is in the mountains of Qom province, where Iran says it has 3,000 centrifuges in operation. Another nuclear facility in Natanz is said to have 8,000 of the machines enriching uranium.
Iran says there's a medical purpose behind the nuclear program.
In order to provide medical assistance to 800,000 cancer patients, Iran needs to enrich uranium up to 20% to be able to feed Tehran's (research) reactor that produces the needed radio Isotopes, the paper reported.
The Iranian government announced in July that it was installing a new generation of centrifuges in its nuclear facilities.
At the time, the French Foreign Ministry called the development a new wave of provocation that flouts United Nations resolutions.
Iran's development of missile and nuclear fuel technology has led to U.N. sanctions and accusations from Washington that the clerical regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Officials in the United States and other Western nations have ratcheted up sanctions against Iran since a November report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said the Iranian government was developing the technology needed to build a nuclear weapon. Last month, U.S. President Barack Obama announced sanctions against Iran's central bank.
Iran says it has a right to peaceful nuclear technology. The U.N. nuclear agency has said it cannot verify whether the intent of Tehran's nuclear program remains peaceful.
In Sunday's report, the fundamentalist paper appeared to thumb its nose at the West.
Fordo is located deep inside mountains and due to its location is immune to any military attack, the article said. Locating the 20% enrichment facility at Fordo means that the military threat option against Iran's nuclear program will be removed from the table forever and the West will be forced to slowly realize the immunity of this program against any foreign threat.