TEHRAN: Iran is installing new uranium enrichment machines to speed progress in its nuclear programme, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, a development that may increase Western concern about Tehran’s aims.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast appeared to confirm a Reuters story last week that Iran was installing two newer and more advanced models of the centrifuges used to refine uranium for large-scale testing at a research site.
If Iran eventually succeeds in introducing the more modern centrifuges for production, it could significantly shorten the time needed to stockpile material which can have civilian as well as military purposes, if processed much further.
”By installing the new centrifuges progress is being made with more speed and better quality,” Mehmanparast said, adding the move showed Iran was being successful in its ”peaceful nuclear activity”.
Mehmanparast said Iran had informed the IAEA about the installment of new centrifuges. ”The agency is aware that our peaceful nuclear activities are progressing … the installment is a confirmation of the Islamic Republic’s success in the nuclear field,” he said.
Iran has for years been trying to develop centrifuges with several times the capacity of the 1970s-vintage, IR-1 version it now uses for the most sensitive part of its atomic activities. (PTI)