Shots from Natanz
Iran has released images from inside its Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Meanwhile, the second of three meetings towards the 2010 review of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is underway in Geneva, Switzerland.
Iran has released images from inside its Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Meanwhile, the second of three meetings towards the 2010 review of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is underway in Geneva, Switzerland.
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| Released on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's official website, a series of images shows the Iranian leader walking between cascades of new uranium enrichment centrifuges during a tour of the Natanz plant. |
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| Ahmadinejad is pictured with what observers speculate may be a carbon-fibre rotor tube. The pictures were taken around the time it was announced that IR-2 centrifuges were being installed. |
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| Don't touch that Mr President. The gallery contains 49 images from within Natanz. |
Iran's uranium enrichment program will be one factor on the minds of those representing nearly 190 nations taking part in the second of three preparatory meetings for the 2010 review of the NPT. The meeting convened on 28 April at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, chaired by Volodymyr Yel'chenko of Ukraine.
The NPT was opened for signature 40 years ago, in July 1968. The treaty entered into force in 1970 and its operation has been reviewed at review conferences held every five years since 1975. With near universal adherence, the NPT is regarded as the cornerstone of the multilateral nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime. Its objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has a special role in administering the safeguards agreements it makes with each nation to ensure potentially dangerous nuclear materials are not misused. It is currently working hard to verify activities in Iran, under pressure from a group of Western states which do not believe the program to be peaceful.
"The world has become appropriately alarmed about Iran's rush to produce fissile materials for reactors it does not have in order to prevent an 'energy crisis' it does not face," the USA's Christopher Ford told the Geneva meeting.
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