He made the remarks during the event of feeding gas into a middle chain of IR6 centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facilities site.
“Today, we experimentally inaugurated a middle chain of 30 IR6 centrifuges,” he said, “Earlier in April, we had put a chain of 20 IR6 centrifuges on stream and prior to that we had inaugurated a chain 10 IR6 centrifuges."
“Presently, there are around 60 IR6 centrifuges, producing 600 SWU of energy,” Salehi said.
“We did not plan to operate the 30 chains within three or four years,” he said, “But we were asked by Iranian senior officials to take the challenge and put the chain online to show the power and capability of the Islamic Republic.”
The United States last year withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear accord with world powers and reimposed sanctions. Iran responded by gradually scaling back its commitments under the agreement and has said it could take further steps in November.
“Concrete foundations of units 2 and 3 of Bushehr nuclear power plant will be laid next week,” Salehi announced.
Salehi underlined that Iran will continue its discovery and extraction plans powerfully and that under JCPOA, the country had not abdicated its rights but had only accepted time and numerical restrictions.
“Before JCPOA, we produced 11,000 SWU of energy and after taking the third step of reducing our JCPOA commitments our production stands at 8,600 SWU,” according to AEOI head.
“We could manage to snap back to our pre-JCPOA SWU level just in two months,” he added.
“The total number of new centrifuges is 490 ones, which manufacture above 2,660 SUW,” Salehi said.
“Before JCPOA, we had a variety of five new modern machines and after taking the third step the number has increased up to 15 one,” he added
“We have about 500 kilograms of enriched uranium, all of which is not 4.2 percent,” he noted, “We add about 5,000 grams to the pile per day.”
“We have not breached out JCPOA commitments,” he underscored.
“However, in accordance with JCPOA, we have halted some of the investigations,” Salehi noted adding that Americans and Europeans are really worried.
“Additional Protocol and safeguards Agreements are preserved,” Salehi underlined.
"The new about our activities will really make Mrs. Sherman really concerned," Salehi said.
MNA/4763469