(JTA) — Iran started installing 3,000 advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges, its atomic energy chief said.
Installation of the new centrifuges began in the Natanz nuclear plant located southeast of Tehran about a month ago, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereidoon Abbasi, said Sunday in Tehran, according to the Iranian Fars news agency.
The upgraded equipment will allow Iran to refine uranium faster, advancing the Islamic Republic toward a nuclear bomb.
Iran informed the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the time that it would use a new model of centrifuge in a unit at its underground facility.
"The final production line of these centrifuges has finished," Abbasi said. "The early generation of these centrifuges, which have low efficiency, will be put away soon."
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful, domestic uses, while Western countries believe it is working to create a nuclear weapon.
