Iran begins injecting uranium gas into sophisticated centrifuges

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility is going operational in a move likely to increase tension between the Islamic state and the West over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, The Telegraph reports.

Kayhan daily, which is close to Iran's ruling clerics, said Tehran has begun injecting uranium gas into sophisticated centrifuges at the Fordow facility near the holy city of Qom.

"Kayhan received reports that shows Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility amid heightened foreign enemy threats," the paper said in a front-page report. Kayhan's manager is a representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's nuclear chief Fereidoun Abbasi said full scale work would start "soon" at Fordow. It was impossible to immediately reconcile the two reports.

"The Fordow nuclear enrichment plant will be operational in the near future - 20 per cent, 3.5 per cent and four per cent enriched uranium can be produced at this site," Abbasi said.