Iran tests third generation centrifuges

TEHRAN - Iran Friday tested its first indigenously built third generation centrifuges, a media report said.

The centrifuges, each 200 mm in diameter, are 10 times more powerful than the ones currently in use in the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, Press TV reported.

The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi made the announcement at a ceremony to commemorate Iran’s annual national nuclear day.

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes. The West, however, alleges the programme is aimed at producing atomic bombs.