IRAN - Mar 30 - Tehran Provides Glimpse Of Atom Site.

Pres Mohammad Khatami takes a group of journalists deep underground into the heart of a key nuclear plant that Washington wants dismantled and whose existence was kept secret until 2002. About 30 local and foreign journalists visited the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, about 250kms, south of Tehran, the centerpiece of a disputed atomic fuel drive that Tehran suspended under international pressure in 2003. The unprecedented visit was an unusual gesture of openness by Tehran. Reporters, allowed to photograph and film the complex, were later shown parts of another atomic facility in the central city of Isfahan. Iran says that its nuclear program is nothing for the world to fear and will be used to generate electricity. But Washington and the EU fear that Iran could use its nuclear plants to produce bombs. The journalists, invited to accompany Khatami on a tour of the 450-hectare, or 1,110-acre, site, were taken inside a building where, two levels below ground, they were shown a vast empty hall designed to house 50,000 enrichment centrifuges. Centrifuges purify uranium fluoride gas into reactor or bomb fuel by spinning at high speeds. Low-grade enriched uranium is used in atomic power plants but highly enriched uranium can be used in the core of a bomb. "If we were looking to make atomic weapons, Khatami said, "we could have completed" these facilities secretly. Little was known about Iran's nuclear program until the existence of Natanz was revealed by an exile opposition group in 2002. While UN inspectors now regularly visit Iran's atomic facilities and have found no proof of atomic weapons production, they have often rebuked Tehran for concealing key information and activities. The journalists were not shown any centrifuges and were not taken to a pilot enrichment facility in Natanz that contains dozens of the machines, currently idled while Iran discusses the future of its nuclear program with the EU. Iranian officials said the main enrichment facility at Natanz was built more than 18 meters, or about 55 feet, below ground because of "security problems". Defense experts said this was a precaution against possible aerial attack by the US or Israel, which have vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms. Approaching the complex, ringed by arid mountains, journalists counted at least 10 anti-aircraft batteries. The EU wants Iran to permanently scrap Natanz and other nuclear fuel work in return for assistance with developing nuclear energy and other economic and security co-operation. Iran says the suspension of nuclear fuel work is merely a temporary confidence-building measure. "We can start test enrichment at any time", said Ehsan Monajemi, a construction project manager at Natanz. "The sealing of the facilities has affected the morale of our people. It would be sad if it continued". The complex would have been finished and inaugurated last year if Iran had not suspended work, said Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.