By JPOST.COM STAFF, APAli Akbar Salehi 248 88 ap(photo credit: AP [file])
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization on Tuesday claimed Teheran has built a "new generation" of high capacity centrifuges.
"Our scientists have built a new generation of centrifuges and cascades with 10 centrifuges each [which] are now being tested," the IRNA news agency quoted Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.
The new centrifuges can enrich uranium with "more than five times the output capacity" of the earlier standard centrifuges, Salehi reportedly said, adding that the Islamic republic "plans to raise this capacity to 10 times."
Also Tuesday, Iranian state television quoted Salehi as saying that Teheran will not demand compensation from Moscow over construction delays in a nuclear power plant that Russia is building in Iran.
Salehi said that Iran is "not thinking" about compensation. Both "reluctance on the part of Russia," as well as technical and financial glitches are to blame for delays in finishing the plant in the southern port of Bushehr, he said.
The $1 billion 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor at Bushehr - a project began in the 1970s by Germany - is expected to be switched on by the end of this year.
Past delays prompted speculation Russia could use Bushehr to prod Iran to comply with international demands on halting uranium enrichment.
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