December 18, 2009

Source:

TEHRAN — Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran is producing new generations of centrifuges which are expected to be used by March 2011, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Friday.

“Iran is now producing new generations of centrifuges named IR3and IR4, and we hope that we can use these new generations of centrifuges by the end of the next Iranian year (March 2011) after removing all problems and defects,” Salehi was quoted as saying in an interview with Fars.

“We have put these new generations of centrifuges into enrichment work and all the necessary tests will be finished soon,” he said, adding that Iran is not in a hurry to enter the industrial production stage.

He also pointed out that the number of centrifuges in operation in Iran’s nuclear facilities is more than 6,000.

Salehi said in September that Iran was testing a new generation of centrifuges.

Former Head of IAEO Gholamreza Aghazadeh said early this year that Iran had 7,000 operating centrifuges and would install up to 50,000 centrifuges in the next 5 years.

Western countries have been long accusing Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb, but Iran insists that its nuclear plan is completely peaceful.