TEHRAN: Iran wants to install 60,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium, according to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has been quoted by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) Monday as saying, "We intend to have 60,000 centrifuges and, God willing, Iran will be able to meet its needs in nuclear fuel by next year."
An earlier report by the agency had quoted the president as saying the country needed 100,000 centrifuges for its nuclear program, but it came out with a correction saying 60,000 is the real figure.
Centrifuges are used in making fuel for nuclear power stations but they can also make material for atomic warheads. The West alleges Iran is precisely planning to do that.
Ahmadinejad's comments had come during his visit to the Tehran offices of state-run television.
Ahmadinejad claimed Iran will be self-sufficient in nuclear fuel in 2007. Pressure being exerted by the U.S. and Israel against the Iranian nation will not succeed, he added, referring to opposition to the enrichment program.
Iran plans to produce all the fuel it requires for a Russian-built nuclear reactor at Bushehr, which is due to come on stream in 2007. According to strategic experts, Iran needs to put 54,000 centrifuges into operation enriching uranium to produce enough fuel for Bushehr. Officials had said they planned to have 3,000 centrifuges running by end-2006. But, it is not likely that the country would have reached this level. It has so far built two cascades of 164 centrifuges each, which can be used to make nuclear fuel or, in much higher grades, the core of an atom bomb.
