Nuclear Chief:

Iran to Mass-Produce Homegrown Centrifuge Machines

TEHRAN (defapress) – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi unveiled plans for the mass production of the fourth and fifth generations of homegrown centrifuge machines used for enriching uranium.

News ID: 75145

Date: 23 January 2019 - 11:53

In comments at a televised program on Tuesday, Salehi said Iran will press ahead with research and development plans in the nuclear industry and mass-produce IR-4 and IR-5 centrifuge machines.

He added that a newer generation of centrifuges, IR-6, is undergoing tests, and that although nuclear scientists have announced that the country can now have three IR-8 centrifuges, the AEOI will wait for a couple of months before producing them.

Salehi further stated that Iran is in possession of the necessary material to enrich uranium to a purity level of 20 percent.

Earlier this month, Salehi said the country has broken new ground in the field of nuclear technology and is taking preliminary steps toward production of 20-percent modern nuclear fuel.

Back in June 2018, Salehi had announced that Iran had developed the necessary infrastructure at the Natanz nuclear facility for enrichment of uranium up to a level of one million SWU.

The Natanz nuclear complex in central Iran has been configured to accommodate 48,000 centrifuge machines, he said, explaining that the work to enhance the capacity of uranium enrichment and open new units for assembling the new generation of centrifuge machines had begun even before the achievement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In early June 2018, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei ordered the AEOI to make preparations for the enrichment of uranium up to a level of 190,000 SWU without any delay in the framework provided by the JCPOA.

In May 2018, the US president pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

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