Iran develops new generation of centrifuges

TEHRAN - Iran is developing a new generation of centrifuges, said head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), local media reported on Friday.

Iran has currently 19,000 centrifuges and is developing a new generation of centrifuges which need all kinds of tests before operation, Ali-Akbar Salehi said.

Iran is among the countries that are able to implement the full process of nuclear fuel production cycle, he said, without providing further details on the new generation of centrifuges.

In November, Iran and major world powers signed an interim deal, under which Iran agreed not to operate its new centrifuges for six months. The deal, however, did not stop the Islamic republic from researching on developing new centrifuges.

In August, former AEOI chief Fereidoon Abbasi announced that Iran had about 18,000 centrifuges, 10,000 of which were operating. "Iran has 17,000 first-generation (IR-1) centrifuges out of which 10,000 are running and over 1,000 indigenously manufactured new generation centrifuges (IR-2m) have also been installed and are ready to be launched."