Iran said Monday it is currently installing 3,000 centrifuges, effectively confirming that its nuclear programme is running behind schedule as these devices for uranium enrichment were to have been in place by the end of last year. “We are moving toward the production of nuclear fuel, which requires 3,000 centrifuges and more than this figure,” government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference. “This programme is being carried out and moving toward completion.”On the weekend, Iran dismissed reports from Europe that its uranium enrichment programme had been stalled. Enriched uranium is used as fuel in nuclear reactor and, at a higher degree of enrichment, it is also used in atomic bombs. But last year Iran had said the installation of the 3,000 centrifuges at its facility in Natanz, located in central Iran, would be completed by the end of 2006.
IranÂ’s failure to install the 3,000 centrifuges by Dec 31 has provoked reports that it is encountering technical difficulties in mastering large-scale enrichment. Further, earlier this month, Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told reporters that about 50 centrifuges had exploded during a test.