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Iran Advances Nuclear Breakout Capacity
(American Enterprise Institute) Maseh Zarif - Iran's determination to acquire a nuclear weapons capability and to develop a rapid breakout capacity is evident in its actions since the last International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report. Iran had installed two interconnected cascades of 174 IR-1 centrifuges each at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) and was feeding those cascades with low-enriched uranium hexafluoride in October 2011. An IAEA spokesperson announced last month that Iran had begun producing uranium enriched up to 20% in those cascades and reports this month indicated that it had installed and begun operating two additional cascades. This expansion would result in 696 IR-1 centrifuges being dedicated to 20% enriched uranium production at FFEP. Iran's increased production of 20% enriched uranium, the prospect of it operating advanced centrifuges, and the partial transfer of higher-level enrichment into a more buried facility taken together amount to an increasingly threatening breakout capacity.