MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax-AVN) - Iran stands little chance of being able to launch 100,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in the near future, said Igor Linge, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Safe Atomic Energy Development Institute.
Iran has neither the research, nor technical capabilities to do this, he told Interfax while commenting on the Iranian leadership's statement.
"Iran announced in spring that it had launched a cascade of 164 centrifuges and said in autumn that a second cascade had been launched. The first and second cascades were put into operation with an interval of some six months. Now they speak about a scheduled launching of 100,000 centrifuges. This is unfeasible," the expert said.
However, even the commissioning of 100,000 centrifuges will not automatically lead to the acquisition of nuclear fuel, Linge said. "Enriched uranium is the material needed to make nuclear fuel. But in addition to the material, technologies are needed," he said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Iran wanted to build 100,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges.
"We want to create 100,000 centrifuges and, Allah willing, Iran will meet its needs in nuclear fuel in a year," Iranian media quoted the Iranian president as saying.