CBNNews.com - Three unnamed diplomats, who follow Iran's nuclear program closely, said Iran linked up 300 advanced centrifuges in two separate underground units at the Natanz nuclear facility.

The consensus among the diplomats is that installing the more advanced centrifuges in the underground plant, used for uranium enrichment, points to Iran's plans to produce the fissile core for nuclear warheads.

Three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions appear not to have affected Iran's determination to push ahead with its nuclear weapons program, albeit under the guise of producing nuclear energy.

Iran has designated Tuesday, April 8, as National Nuclear Technology Day, when the government may disclose some word on its use of the advanced centrifuges.

"Something new is definitely going on," said David Albright, a former United Nations nuclear inspector now with the Institute for Science and International Security, headquartered in Washington, which tracks countries suspected of nuclear weapons aspirations.

In February, Iran acknowledged that its plants had begun upgrading the old P-1 centrifuges with the IR-2, which doubles or triples the production rate of enriched uranium. The announcement confirmed reports by IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) officials that Iran upgraded 10 IR-2 centrifuges to produce small quantities of enriched uranium.

Despite insistence that its nuclear program is solely for energy production, mounting evidence suggests Iran has plans to produce nuclear warheads.

Source: The Associated Press