Tehran - A team of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors are scheduled to inspect Sunday the new nuclear site Fordu located south of the Iranian capital, state media reported. The four inspectors arrived in the early hours of Sunday in Tehran and supposed to check whether the Iranian data presented last month by Iran to the IAEA match with those at the site.
According to Iranian information, the site is under construction and would get operational either by the end of 2010 or in March 2011.
The main Iranian enrichment site is the Natanz plant located in central Iran where 8000 centrifuges, mainly of the slower P1 model, are reportedly installed and according to IAEA 4,600 - Iran claims 6,000 -already operational.
Some 3,000 centrifuges of the P2 model - which are more than twice as fast as the P1 - are to be gradually installed in the Fordu site.
The locally made P2 models named IR-2 are gradually to replace the P1 centrifuges in the Natanz plant, Iranian officials say.
The West fears that the site might be used for a secret military programme but Iran's Atomic Organization head Ali-Alkbar Salehi rejects the accusations, saying the second plant would be in full accordance with all international regulations and under IAEA surveillance.
Iran's IAEA ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said within the same context that Fordo was a back-up plant in case the Natanz site was attacked by Israel.
Although the IAEA inspection results of the unfinished Fordu site -to be reflected in next month's report by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei - would not bring any major breakthrough but could still have a positive symbolic impact in the nuclear dispute.
Another positive impact could be Iran's positive reply to the uranium exchange deal with Russia, the United States and France.
Iran wants to reply to the IAEA within next week whether it would agree with the deal to exchange its low-enriched (3.5 per cent) from the Natanz with high-enriched (20 per cent) uranium from the three states or rather purchase the enriched uranium separately.
Observers believe that rejecting the deal would once again endanger future nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers.
