IR-8 to Up Enrichment Capacity 20-Fold

Iran’s new domestically-manufactured IR-8 centrifuge machines will increase the country’s capacity to enrich uranium 20 times more than the existing IR-1 machines, the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said.  “The enrichment capacity of IR-8 centrifuge is 20 SWUs (separative work units) per year and the [country’s] enrichment capacity will increase 20 times after the mass production of this machine,” Behrouz Kamalvandi also said on Tuesday, Press TV reported.  “This is while the enrichment capacity of the existing IR-1 centrifuges is 1 SWU per year,” he said. Kamalvandi noted that the IR-8 centrifuges are currently being tested with enriched uranium gas and will be mass produced eight years after the implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers in January 2016. The production of this machine, which is a significant development in the nuclear and enrichment industry, is one of the issues envisaged in the [deal],” he said.