Iran builds new generation of centrifuges

Iran's top nuclear official announced that Iran has built a new generation of high capacity centrifuges. Apparently the centrifuges are capable of enriching uranium at "five times the output capacity" of the older centrifuges.

Once Iran deploys enough of these new generation centrifuge they will be able to produce enough enriched uranium for 150-300 nukes, instead of 30-60 nukes, in two years time. Yahoo! News

TEHRAN (AFP) – The chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said on Tuesday that the scientists of the Islamic republic have managed to build new generation of high capacity centrifuges.

"Our scientists have built new generation of centrifuges and cascades with 10 centrifuges each are now being tested," Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Salehi said the new generation of centrifuges can enrich uranium with "more than five times the output capacity" of the earlier standard centrifuges and that Iran "plans to raise this capacity to 10 times."

Read More...

Summary only...

Pakistan Provided Centrifuges to N. Korea

Another reason why Pakistan was/is not our ally. Fox News

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — North Korea received centrifuges from Pakistan in a 2000 shipment supervised by the army during the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said Friday.

Khan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the uranium enrichment equipment was sent from Pakistan in a North Korean plane which was loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials.

His claims contradict his 2004 confession that he was solely responsible for spreading nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya — and Pakistan's repeated denials its army or government knew about Khan's nuclear proliferation activities.

....

Khan said the army had "complete knowledge" of the shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea and that it must have been sent with the consent of Musharraf, the then-army chief who took power in a 1999 coup.

"It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment," Khan said. "It must have gone with his (Musharraf's) consent."

Khan's allegations, reported earlier Friday by the Japanese news agency, Kyodo, are his most controversial yet and could prove deeply embarrassing for both the army and Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror.

Read More...

Summary only...