Hey, let's celebrate Enriched Uranium Day

Saturday is normally the start of Iran's week, but Iranians could take tomorrow off to mark a new annual holiday - National Nuclear Energy Day. Nationalists in the parliament and the conservative press have called on the government to declare the holiday to celebrate the achievement of scientists in enriching uranium despite pressure from the West.

"The West wants to stop others from being industrial powers, so it doesn't want to share its strength with us," said retired aviation expert Hamed Sangani, 54.

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Supporters have compared the achievement to Iran's 1951 nationalisation of its oil industry, then controlled by Britain. That stand against Western power led to two years of harsh economic sanctions.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if other countries were angry about Iran's nuclear progress they should "be angry and die of that anger". In Tehran, Iranians said they hoped this crisis would be resolved more peacefully, but many expressed their resolve to defend what they see as their country's right to uranium enrichment.

Bells were rung in schools across the country on Wednesday to celebrate the announcement. And at Friday prayers in Tehran's Amir Kabir University, a huge yellow cake, symbolic of uranium yellowcake, will be distributed today among members of the congregation.

But behind the show of unity, some Iranians have queried the wisdom of the government's tough line. Newspapers have been warned not to run editorials or analysis pieces on Iran's nuclear breakthrough.