AEOI Chief: Iran Triples Separation Capacity of Centrifuge Machines

AEOI Chief: Iran Triples Separation Capacity of Centrifuge Machines.(Fars).Tehran - Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbasi announced that the country's experts have managed to triple the separation capacity of its centrifuge machines, and have installed a 164-set cascade of the new machines in the country's nuclear enrichment facilities.Speaking in a ceremony on the occasion of the National Day of Nuclear Technology in Iran's Central city of Qom, Abbasi stressed that Iran is enriching uranium to the purity levels of 3.5% at its facilities. "At present (nuclear) fuel rods and plates are being produced inside the country. At the same time high-power centrifuges have been used in Natanz (nuclear enrichment facilities) and a 164-set cascade has been set up in the center and therefore the separation capacity of the Iranian (centrifuge) machines has tripled," Abbasi said. Improving separation capacity accelerates the speed of fuel production, which means that Iran can produce larger volumes of fuel in a given period, but it does not increase the purity level of enrichment. He further stressed that Iran is among the few countries which enjoy the knowledge of the complete nuclear fuel production cycle. In January, Abbasi announced that Tehran has shown the new generation of its home-made centrifuge machines to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In April 2010, the AEOI officials had announced that Iranian scientists have managed to design the first sample of the third generation of home-made centrifuges. "Our skillful colleagues at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran have succeeded in designing third-generation machines thanks to God," former head of the AEOI Ali Akbar Salehi declared at the time. "The (third-generation) machines have accomplished their mechanical tests. We expect that God willing the machines would show the separation capacity of approximately 10 after the upcoming phase of gas injection," the official stressed at the time.Hmmmm......Just playing for time thanks to Obama and Erdogan.Read the full story here.