The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, announced that “today, we experimentally inaugurated a middle chain of 30 IR-6 centrifuges”, tallying that “presently, there are around 60 IR-6 centrifuges”. “We did not plan to operate the 30 chains within three or four years”, he added, “but we were asked by Iranian senior officials to take the challenge and put the chain online to show the power and capability of the Islamic Republic”.