Agence France-Presse,
Iran on Monday marks its first national day of nuclear technology with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expected to again defy Western pressure by announcing a stride forward in its atomic drive.
Just days after Iran released 15 British sailors to end a potentially dangerous stand-off with London, Ahmadinejad will visit the country's most sensitive nuclear site in the central town of Natanz.
The nuclear day marks the first anniversary of Iran's production of uranium sufficiently enriched to make nuclear fuel, and is also expected to be marked by demonstrations across the country.
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly promised to announce “good nuclear news” in the near future, and is widely expected to use his visit to the heavily defended uranium enrichment plant to do so.
Any major announcement of progress is likely to further strain tensions with the West, which fears Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and wants Tehran to suspend enrichment.
But the Islamic republic insists its nuclear drive is solely aimed at supplying energy for a growing population.
Iranian officials have remained tight-lipped over the nature of the news, which is expected to relate to progress towards enriching uranium on an industrial scale at Natanz.
Iran's stated aim is to install 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges at a massive underground hall at the plant, and local media have speculated that the announcement will focus on progress towards this goal.
“In February they were supposed to announce the installation and launch of 3,000 centrifuges, but it did not happen so it is expected that the good news involves the installation and launch of the centrifuges,” the Fars news agency said.
Tehran originally wanted to have the 3,000 installed by March, but so far it has officially confirmed only that it has put in place two cascades of 164 centrifuges apiece.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there are at least 1,000 centrifuges in Natanz at different stages of installation, but only around a third have yet been fed with uranium hexafluoride gas feedstock.
The UN Security Council has already imposed two packages of sanctions against Iran over its failure to heed ultimatums from the world body to suspend uranium enrichment.
Uranium enrichment is highly sensitive because the process can be used both to make fuel for nuclear energy plants and the explosive core of a nuclear bomb. Iran insists it has every right to the full nuclear fuel cycle.
Last April Iran announced it had succeeded in enriching uranium to 3.5 percent, good enough for nuclear fuel but still well off the 90 percent levels required to make an atomic weapon.
Tehran on Sunday again dashed any hopes that after the release of the British sailors it might take a softer line on demands that it halt uranium enrichment.
“We will not discuss the legitimate rights of Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference.
“We can negotiate about the concerns of the different parties and the non-diversion of the Iranian nuclear programme,” said Hosseini, referring to Iran's insistence that its atomic drive is peaceful.
“We are doing nothing that is against the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and so there is no reason or logic for a suspension,” he said.
