MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's controversial nuclear program is not capable of industrial uranium enrichment, the head of Russia's nuclear power agency said Thursday.
"Industrial uranium enrichment in Iran is out of the question," Sergei Kiriyenko said
On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country had joined the club of nuclear-capable countries by successfully enriching uranium to a level sufficient for use in nuclear power plants.
"It has long been known that Iran has a 'cascade' of 164 centrifuges, and obtaining low-enriched uranium from this cascade was only a matter of time," Kiriyenko said. "This did not come as a surprise to us."
Iran has been accused of pursuing a covert program to develop nuclear weapons but has denied the accusations, insisting that its nuclear program is purely civilian and that it has the right to produce nuclear fuel on its own soil.
