Iran says installing more centrifuges

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Source: CCTV.com | 04-09-2008 09:38

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran has begun installing thousands of new centrifuges at a uranium enrichment plant.

During a tour of the Natanz facility in central Iran, Ahmadinejad(L1) said Iran has begun installing six- thousand new centrifuges. He said other new  achievements will be announced soon. (CCTV.com)

The US has criticized the announcement, saying it's an example of Iran's continued defiance of international demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.

During a tour of the Natanz facility in central Iran, Ahmadinejad said Iran has begun installing six-thousand new centrifuges. He said other new achievements will be announced soon.

The trip was scheduled to coincide with Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, marking the second anniversary of Iran's first enrichment of uranium.

Meanwhile, Iranians in the southwestern city of Bushehr marked the occasion with a ceremony at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Mhamoud Jafari, Head of Bushehr Nuclear Plant, said, "Today Iran has reached an irreversible point in nuclear technology. The West's pressure on Iran will only make Iranians strengthen their unity and defend their national interests."

Iran already has about three-thousand centrifuges operating in Natanz.

A total of three-thousand centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage.

At this stage it can be used for a full industrial-scale program that could produce enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons.

The UN has passed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment activity.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is focused on the peaceful production of energy, not the development of weapons.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei