Iran Replacing Old Nuclear Centrifuges with Advanced Models

Iran displaying missile in front of supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s picture
Iran displaying missile in front of supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s picture

Iran displaying missile in front of supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s picture

Stop Fundamentalism – Iran’s head of Nuclear Energy Agency, Fereidoun Abbasi, told the state-run ILNA news agency yesterday that his country plans to replace old centrifuges with 3000 new advance models in a very short period of time.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, says the new centrifuges can enrich uranium 3 to 5 times faster than the old models, bringing Iran a big step closer to what is referred to as a breakout point for becoming a nuclear state.

Iran periodically turns a portion of its stockpile of enriched uranium into reactor fuel in order to ease international tensions mounting in fear of the Islamic fundamentalist regime becoming a nuclear armed state.

Western powers met with Iranian delegation in Almaty, Kazakhstan last week for talks to convince Iran to back down from its aggressive nuclear program, the west suspects of having military aims.

“The production is finalized, and the new generation of centrifuges will soon replace the old ones that had much lower performance,” said Abbasi to ILNA.

Abbasi played down the threat of Isfahan nuclear site in case of an airstrike by Israel or other nations claiming the plant holds much less nuclear material than alleged by the west. “The site poses no threats and the waste coming from our oil refineries or petrochemical plants create more hazards than the nuclear waste produced in Isfahan plant,” claimed Abbasi.

Iran’s banking and military sectors have been targeted by increasing international sanctions to encourage the Islamic Republic curve its nuclear program and allow the international atomic watchdog, the IAEA, free inspection to its nuclear sites in order to determine the nature of Iran’s program.  But Iranian authorities have been reluctant to allow such visits.  That is specifically to a site known as Parchin in which IAEA says the country has performed tests on a trigger mechanism to be used on a nuclear warhead.