Iran adds 3000 centrifuges to nuclear programme

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Wednesday that 3,000 new centrifuges had been added to the Iran's uranium enrichment programme, saying higher capacity centrifuges have been installed in a key facility in Natanz. Ahmadinejad said, in a statement on state TV, that around 6000 centrifuges were already being used in the uranium programme; with the new centrifuges, the total goes up to 9000. Ahmadinejad said the new centrifuges will be able to refine uranium three times faster than the previous models. A model of the fourth generation of domestically-made centrifuges was presentes in a live broadcast by state TV. The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Fereidoon Abbasi, said during the ceremony that his country activated the first wave of the centrifuges' latest model at its Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Wednesday. Abbasi added that the move will speed up to a great degree the country's uranium enrichment activities and that it is a strong response to Western hostilities. Earlier on Wednesday, a report by the local satellite TV from Natanz said the new centrifuges are made of carbon fibre and performs three times more efficiently than the previous model. The developments underlined Tehran's determination to move forward with its nuclear activities despite the increasingly tough sanctions from the West - and speculation that Israel or the United States could be months from launching military strikes against the country. Iran portrayed the progresses as an evidence to prove it was only interested in reaching peaceful nuclear goals, under the slogan "nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for no-one."