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Report: Natanz Blast "Likely Took 5000 Centrifuges Offline"
(Jewish Institute for the National Security of America - JINSA) Blaise Misztal and Jonathan Ruhe - The April 11 explosions at Natanz apparently took 5,060 IR-1 centrifuges offline. Although some reports say it might take Iran up to nine months to recover from the explosion, that is the amount of time to rebuild the Natanz facility. However, Iran could still break out using centrifuges at other plants, chiefly Fordo. Tehran's decision to proceed with 60% enrichment is not necessarily a "major jump." Reaching 20% enrichment represents roughly 90% of the effort required to reach weapons-grade uranium. Going from 20 to 60% requires only 5% of the total enrichment work. Blaise Misztal is Vice President for Policy at JINSA, where Jonathan Ruhe is Director of Foreign Policy.