Iran is moving its centrifuges, machines for enriching uranium, to a secret site inside a mountain, the head of Iran’s nuclear program, Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, told Iranian state television August 21.

They are being moved to Iran’s Fordo plant, buried inside a mountain near the Shiite sacred city of Qom. “The Fordo facility is being prepared and a batch of centrifuge machines have been transferred there,” said Davani.

The Fordo plant was built in secret, and its existence was revealed to the world in September 2009.

Last month, Iran also announced that it was starting to use a new type of centrifuge that could enrich uranium five to six times faster than the old type.

Also on Sunday, Davani was quoted as announcing that Iran was negotiating with Russia about the construction of new nuclear power plants.

“Carrying out the process in Fordo could provide greater protection for Iran’s uranium-purifying centrifuges against any U.S. and Israeli air strikes,” writes Reuters. This means Iran can move more quickly toward building a nuclear bomb, and its centrifuges may soon be invulnerable to air strikes.

That will only make Iran more pushy.