Iran says it now has more than 5,000 centrifuges running
TEHRAN - Iran announced yesterday it now has 5,000 centrifuges operating and enriching uranium, the country's latest defiance of UN demands to halt its controversial nuclear program.
Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Iran will continue to install more centrifuges and enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel for future nuclear power plants. In August, Iran said it had 4,000 centrifuges running at its plant in Natanz.
Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel, but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in nuclear weapons.
"At this point, more than 5,000 centrifuges are operating in Natanz and enriching uranium," said Aghazadeh, who is head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. He spoke to reporters during an exhibition of Iranian nuclear achievements at Tehran University.
Flaunting Iran's defiance of international demands, Aghazadeh said the Islamic Republic will never suspend enrichment.
"Suspension has not been defined in our lexicon," he said.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a report last month that Iran was installing or preparing to install thousands more of the machines that spin uranium gas to enrich it, with the target of 9,000 centrifuges by next year.
Iran has previously said it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that will involve 54,000 centrifuges.
Former UN nuclear inspector David Albright said the additional centrifuges announced yesterday were expected.
"Expect another 1,000 to start enriching soon," said Albright, president for the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "As Iran runs centrifuges more and more, it's just going to get better at it."
Earlier this month, the IAEA estimated Iran had about 1,400 pounds of low-enriched uranium. UN officials have said Tehran would have to produce a little more than twice that to begin enriching it to the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon.
Tehran denies it is trying to build bombs and asserts that it has the right to enrich uranium and produce reactor fuel. 