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WORLD NEWS Friday 20 december 2019

Iran president says country testing new advanced centrifuges

By AMIR VAHDAT built a prototype of an IR-9
Associated Press centrifuge that is 50 times
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's faster than the IR-1 ones,
President Hassan Rouhani which Iran mostly uses.
said his country's nuclear Also in November, Iran be-
experts are testing a new gan injecting uranium gas
type of advanced centri- into over a thousand centri-
fuges, remarks likely meant fuges at a fortified nuclear
to rally support for the Ira- facility at Fordo, built inside
nian leader as his nation a mountain as the latest
struggles under crushing step away from its atomic
U.S. sanctions. accord with world pow-
Rouhani spoke during a ers since President Donald Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech at the Kuala Lumpur Summit in Kuala Lumpur,
meeting Wednesday with Trump pulled America out Malaysia, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019.
Iranian expatriates in Kuala of the deal. Associated Press
Lumpur, Malaysia, where The centrifuges at Fordo
he also used an Islamic are first-generation IR-1s
conference on Thursday as but the 2015 landmark nu-
a platform to decry Ameri- clear deal allowed those at
can sanctions against Iran. Fordo to spin without urani-
"We have had great um gas, as well as allowing
achievements and today, over 5,000 such centrifuges
Iranian new IR-6 centrifug- to operate at the Iranian
es are working and mod- Natanz facility to enrich
els IR-9 are currently being uranium.
tested," the state-run IRNA In the meantime, Tehran
news agency quoted Rou- has also doubled the num-
hani as telling the Iranian ber of advanced IR-6 cen-
expats. trifuges operating in the
Iran was gripped by sev- country to 60, another step
eral days of violent protests away from the nuclear ac-
in November amid anger cord.
over a sharp hike in gaso- A centrifuge enriches ura-
line prices following U.S. nium by rapidly spinning
sanctions after Washing- uranium hexafluoride gas.
ton withdrew last year from An IR-6 centrifuge can pro-
Iran's 2015 nuclear deal duce enriched uranium 10
with world powers. times faster than an IR-1,
Rouhani told the Islamic Iranian officials say.
conference that the U.S. For now, Iran is enriching
sought to cripple Iran with uranium up to 4.5%, in vio-
the "heaviest sanctions" but lation of the accord's limit
the country's economy is of 3.67%. Enriching uranium
on the mend and moving at the 3.67% level is enough
away from reliance on oil. for peaceful purposes but is
His announcement a day far below weapons-grade
earlier about the new cen- levels of 90%.
trifuges being tested was The nuclear deal was struck
not the first time they were amid Western fears that
mentioned. Last month, Iran could use its program
Iran's nuclear chief Ali Ak- to build a nuclear weapon.
bar Salemi first mentioned Tehran insists the program is
that Iranian scientists have for peaceful purposes.q

linda.reijnders@cspnv.com