Azerbaijan, Baku, April 9 /Trend/
Iran is producing the third generation of centrifuges, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, said today, addressing the event in Tehran dedicated to the National Day of Nuclear Technology, IRIN television reported.
Salehi said that now in Iran, the first generation of centrifuges is used at Natanz plant, their capacity is 1.8 percent and second-generation centrifuges have been tested and are now installed at the same plant.
"Second-generation centrifuges are three times greater than the centrifuge of the first generation for their functionality, their ability to separate isotopes is 5 percent," said Salehi.
According to him, the third-generation centrifuges are now in the testing and technical features are more developed. "The ability of these centrifuges to separate isotopes is 6 times more than the ability of first-generation centrifuge, the efficiency is 10 percent," said Salehi.
The radius of this kind of centrifuge is 100 mm.
April 9 is marked as National Day of Nuclear Technology in Iran. This holiday was established in April 2006, when the Islamic Republic launched the first cascade of centrifuges and began enriching uranium to the level of 3.5 percent. According to statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran has joined the "club of states with nuclear technology."
A year later, Iran started industrial enrichment of uranium, and a year later - on the Day of Nuclear Technology - Iranian officials announced the installation of 6,000 centrifuges at Natanz nuclear center. Last year, April 9, a nuclear fuel production plant was put into operation in Isfahan, thus, a full nuclear fuel cycle was created in Iran.
In February this year, during the celebration of the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad announced the start of uranium enrichment to the level of 20 percent to produce fuel for the Tehran research reactor.