• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Iran Installs New Enrichment Centrifuges

February 13, 2013

Iran has announced it has started installing a new generation of machines for enriching uranium at its main facility making nuclear fuel.

Iranian media quoted Fereydun Abbasi-Davani, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, as saying on February 13 that new centrifuges began to be installed at the Natanz site last month.

He said the new centrifuges will only be used to produce low-level enriched uranium.

Monitors say the new machines could enable Iran to enrich uranium much faster than is currently possible.

The Iranian announcement comes as a delegation from the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency is in Tehran for talks on the possibility of new inspections.

The visit comes ahead of the nuclear talks scheduled for February 26 in Kazakhstan between Iran and six world powers after a gap of eight months.

Ahead of those talks, EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton has told a UN Security Council meeting she hopes Iran will show flexibility at the talks, so that substantial progress can be made to address international concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

Ashton has been coordinating the talks on behalf of the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany.

Iran has refused to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which Western states suspect is aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-nuclear-enrichment/24901169.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.