Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 14
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
The advanced domestically-manufactured centrifuge machines, known as IR-8, will enable Iran to boost its capacity for enriching uranium, an Iranian atomic official said.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), has said that IR-8 centrifuge machines can enrich uranium with a capacity of 20 separative work units (SWU) per year, IRNA news agency reported.
He added that the mass production of IR-8 centrifuge devices will increase the country’s capacity for enriching uranium by 20 SWU.
According to the official, the country currently is enriching uranium using IR-1 centrifuge machines with a capacity of one SUW.
Kamalvandi further said that the IR-8 machines currently are undergoing tests and they will be produced in mass eight years after the date the nuclear deal was inked between Iran and the world powers.
The official also said that making the IR-8 machines is not in the breach of the country’s nuclear accord with the world.
Iran and the world powers in Vienna on July 14, 2015 reached a historic deal on Tehran's nuclear program removing sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for curbing the country's nuclear program.
Earlier in January, Iran started injecting uranium hexafluoride (UF6) into IR-8 centrifuges.