Iran’s media has quoted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country’s President, as having spoken of how the installation of 6,000 more centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear site has commenced.

"Today, the phase for installing 6,000 new centrifuges at the facility in Natanz has started", Ahmadinejad was quoted as having said.

Iran’s National Nuclear Day

The comments were made while he was at Natanz – there, in connection with Iran’s national nuclear day. Described as a “national day of nuclear technology”, it marked the two year anniversary of the country’s first production of uranium that had been enriched enough to create atomic fuel.

It is believed that Natanz already has around 3,000 centrifuges, which are used during the uranium enrichment process.

Nuclear Weapons Claims

The US, as well as a number of other countries in the West, claims that Iran’s goal from the enrichment is to construct nuclear weapons – accusations that Tehran strongly denies.

According to Iran, the enriched uranium produced by its centrifuges is solely for civilian use. Consequently, demands made by the United Nations Security Council that it ceases this enrichment have not been met.  

Sanctions on Iran

In March 2008, the Security Council gave its approval for a third set of sanctions to be imposed on Iran.

At the end of 2007, a National Intelligence Estimate was published. This said that Iran’s nuclear weapons production had ended four years earlier – a verdict that contrasted with US President George W. Bush’s warnings on the global threat posed by it.

If all 6,000 new centrifuges were installed, Iran’s nuclear programme would take on much greater strength.

P-1, IR-2 Centrifuges

The backbone of Iran’s uranium enrichment is provided by the P-1 centrifuge. However, two months ago, officials in Iran stated that examples of the newer, faster IR-2 centrifuge were beginning to be used.

Iran’s news coverage did not specify whether the 6,000 new centrifuges would be P-1s, IR-2s, or a mixture of both.

Source – Armed Forces International’s Middle East Correspondent

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