Mechanical tests? Seriously? A nuclear centrifuge is a useless piece of junk before it has been tested with gas injected to it. Once they injected gas into it, then I'll accept that they have tested it. Before that, it's nothing more than a prototype and the SWU they report is nothing but a theoretical limit that will never be fulfilled.
IR-1 was supposed to have a SWU of 3, but the reports from the IAEA claim that the best it performed was below 1.5 SWU. And most of the time it worked in the range of 0.8 to 1 SWU.
Western powers are very scared about Fordow because it is almost immune to attack, hence the outrage when it was exposed. This was thus a big response by Iran (in the context of the JCPOA at least).
Natanz is also immune to attack and it is an underground facility as well. Natanz in fact has a higher density of air defenses. The outrage about Fordow was an excuse to put more pressure on Iran. I still don't understand why it's a big move. A big move is to do something you haven't done before. Like enriching uranium to 50%. After all the threats, the Rouhani administration is still enriching uranium at 4.5%, not even the 5% that Rouhani himself spoke of. Are you effing kidding me?
As for the smaller size of S-series, the point is that they can be manufactured at various sites across the country quicker and more easily, and can be operated at smaller and easier to hide locations. Under the JCPOA Iran was only supposed to have one site for enriching uranium - Natanz.
And how do you conclude that smaller size means less manufacturing time? A dustbin is usually bigger than an iPhone but it doesn't mean that manufacturing an iPhone is easier than a dustbin. Does it?
As far as installation is concerned, the S model seen in the photo seems to have a larger diameter but shorter height. So, you can't really say that it takes up less space on and we can install more of them for cascading either. Can you?
I read recently that Iran has enough 20% uranium for its needs but if it needs more it will produce more.
The 127,000 kg SWU goal was prior to the JCPOA limitations which obviously supersede that for the time being. The plan then became more staggered (delayed), but this was not a 'failure' to meet those goals, just that the goals were adjusted in light of the JCPOA.
Yeah. Another blatant lie by Salehi. He said just few days ago that we have enough 20% HALEU but Iran has no reserves of HALEU besides the HALEU that is currently being consumed by the Tehran Research Reactor. We gave up the excess of our HALEU reserves in the JCPOA. The JCPOA clearly and explicitly states that Iran cannot have more than 300 kilograms of 3.5% LEU and the Rouhani administration got rid of the excess as fast as possible when they were "fulfilling" their commitments under the JCPOA in 2015-2016. So, nope. We don't have any HALEU left and once the TRR consumes its fuel, we will be in trouble. The more we wait, the more difficult it gets to produce it later because it will require a larger number of centrifuges spinning.
The 190,000 Kg UF6 SWU is not a "goal". It's the number required for keeping our nuclear facilities running without purchasing uranium from other countries. Unless your definition of a nuclear industry is to enrich uranium only to send it to Russia for their use, then anything that doesn't meet that demand is treason (which is what happened under the JCPOA). If we can't meet the 190,000 Kg UF6 SWU, Bushehr and TRR will have to go offline. And at the current pace, we will be nowhere near our previous 13,000 kg stockpile of uranium anytime soon.
