维也纳的外交官员说，伊朗开始在一个设施内进行铀浓缩活动。在那里，铀有可能会很快升级，将来用于核弹。与国际核项目监督机构关系密切的外交官们星期一说，伊朗位于什叶派圣城库姆附近的地下核设施弗多的离心机已经可以提炼出纯度达到20%的铀。上述报道加剧了国际社会对伊朗研发核武器的担忧，但是伊朗表示其核项目是和平的。弗多核设施座落在一座山的下面，受到严密防守，以防范反对伊朗核项目的一些国家可能发动的空袭。伊朗先前也表示，一直在准备把更高级别的铀浓缩活动从纳坦兹的地面工厂转移到弗多的地下设施。
伊朗表示，其核项目是为了发电并为医疗研究提供材料。纳坦兹核设施的主要工作围绕提炼纯度为3.5%的浓缩铀展开。但是弗多的浓缩铀纯度达到20%，这会使伊朗在更短时间内进一步提炼浓缩铀，使其纯度达到武器级铀所需要的90%的纯度。美国和以色列没有排除采取军事行动阻止伊朗核项目的可能。他们怀疑伊朗在研发核武器。以色列认为拥有核武器的伊朗会对以色列的生存构成威胁。
Diplomats in Vienna say Iran has started uranium enrichment at a facility where the material can be upgraded quickly for potential use in a nuclear bomb. The diplomats close to the international monitoring of nuclear programs said Monday that Iranian centrifuges were refining uranium to a purity of 20 percent at the underground Fordo complex near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom. The report increases international concerns that Iran is developing an atomic weapons program. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful. The Fordo complex is located beneath a mountain and is better protected from potential air strikes by nations opposed to the Iranian nuclear program. Iran said previously it was preparing to move its highest-grade enrichment work to Fordo from its an above-ground complex in the central city of Natanz.
Iran says its nuclear program is designed only to generate electricity and material for medical research. Most of the work at the Natanz facility has involved refining uranium to a relatively low purity of 3.5 percent. Enrichment to the 20 percent level at the Fordo complex could reduce the time needed for Iran to further refine the material to the 90 percent purity required for nuclear weapons. The United States and its ally Israel have not ruled out military action to stop the program, which they suspect is aimed at developing a capability to produce nuclear weapons. Israel sees a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to the Jewish state's existence.
