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Khondab, Iran: Iran yesterday inaugurated a plant that could be used to produce plutonium, expanding its nuclear programme only days before a UN deadline threatening sanctions unless Tehran reels in activities the West fears aim to build nuclear weapons.
When it is finished, the 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year, experts have said.
If uranium is enriched to a higher degree it can be used to build a weapon.
The official opening of the heavy-water plant marked a new show of defiance by Iran.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off the possibility of sanctions, insisting his country would not slow its nuclear ambitions.
"We tell the Western countries not to cause trouble for themselves because the Iranian people are determined to make progress and acquire technology," Ahmadinejad said after inaugurating the site, underlining that Iran's nuclear programme was peaceful.
"There is no discussion of nuclear weapons," he said. "We are not a threat to anybody, even the Zionist regime [Israel], which is a definite enemy to the people of the region."
The UN Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend a key part of its nuclear programme the enrichment of uranium.
But Iran has refused any immediate suspension, dismissing the deadline as illegal a stance that put it on a collision course with the UN Security Council.
Tehran appears to be counting on its allies Russia and China, which hold veto power at the council, to knock down any attempt to impose sanctions.
Russian Vice-Premier Sergei Ivanov said on Friday that it was too early to consider imposing sanctions and that his country would press for a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
The inauguration of the Khondab heavy-water plant was largely symbolic but underlined Iran's determination to push ahead with its programme despite the international pressure.
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