A 1000 MWe nuclear plant starts with ~120 tonnes of 3.67% LEU and typically purchases ~30–40 tonnes of 3.67% LEU fuel per year, starting from Year 2, using a 3-batch refueling cycle.

A 1 GW nuclear power plant should expect to pay around $125–140 million USD to purchase 40 tonnes of 3.67% enriched uranium fuel (as UF₆) on the commercial market in 2025, under standard long-term supply contracts.

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1 SWU is the work needed to:

• Take 1 kg of natural uranium,

• Enrich part of it to a higher percentage of U-235,

• Remove the rest as depleted uranium (tails),

• While keeping track of how much was separated.

If a centrifuge has a capacity of 5 SWU/year, and:

• You’re enriching uranium to 5% U-235, and

• You’re using a tails assay of 0.25%, and

• It takes about 6 SWU to produce 1 kg of 5% LEU,

 

MODEL	CAPACITY (SWU/yr)[3]	ROTOR ASSEMBLY MATERIAL[4]	FIRST TESTED[5]	# INSTALLED	# IN PRODUCTION MODE[6]
IR-1	~0.8[7]	Aluminum + maraging steel	Late 1990s	Total: 7260 at FEP:[12] 6204 at PFEP: 12 at FFEP: 1044	Total: 7260 at FEP:[12] 6204 at PFEP: 12 at FFEP: 1044
IR-2m	~4-5[8]	Maraging steel + carbon fiber	2009	Total: 7065 at FEP:[13] 6786 at PFEP: 279 at FFEP: 0	Total: 4974 at FEP:[13] 4698 at PFEP: 276 at FFEP: 0
IR-4	~4-5[8]	Carbon fiber	2009	Total: 3451 at FEP:[13] 3084 at PFEP: 367 at FFEP: 0	Total: 2449 at FEP:[13] 2088 at PFEP: 361 at FFEP: 0
IR-5	6-10[9]	Carbon fiber[10]	2013	Total: 31 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 31 at FFEP: 0	Total: 28 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 28 at FFEP: 0
IR-6	6-10[9]	Carbon fiber[11]	2013	Total: 2865 at FEP:[13] 522 at PFEP: 601 at FFEP:[14] 1742	Total: 2165 at FEP:[13] 522 at PFEP: 423 at FFEP:[14] 1220
IR-6s	3-6[9]	Carbon fiber[10]	2013	Total: 21 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 21 at FFEP: 0	Total: 20 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 20 at FFEP: 0
IR-7	11-20[9]	Carbon fiber[10]	2019	Total: 1 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 1 at FFEP: 0	Total: 0 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 0 at FFEP: 0
IR-8	16-24[9]	Carbon fiber[10]	2017	Total: 1 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 1 at FFEP: 0	Total: 0 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 0 at FFEP: 0
IR-8B	10-15[9]	Carbon fiber[10]	2019	Total: 1 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 1 at FFEP: 0	Total: 0 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 0 at FFEP: 0
IR-9	34-50[9]	Carbon fiber[10]	2021	Total: 1 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 1 at FFEP: 0	Total: 0 at FEP: 0 at PFEP: 0 at FFEP: 0

 

 

https://www.iranwatch.org/our-publications/weapon-program-background-report/irans-centrifuges-models-status

 

Feature	IR‑6	IR‑9
Generation	3rd gen	5th gen
Height & Size	Taller than IR‑1/2; dual rotors	≈5 m tall, very wide, 5 bellows
Theoretical Output	~10 SWU/year	~40–50 SWU/year
Practical Output	~5 SWU/year (in cascades)	Not yet deployed in cascades
Development Status	Fully deployed and enriching uranium	Early-stage testing, no production use

 

 

Company / Country	Typical SWU per Centrifuge	Notes
Urenco (Germany, UK, NL)	~5–10 SWU/year (estimated)	Uses Zippe-type; exact figures classified
Orano (France)	~5–8 SWU/year	Uses ETC tech via George Besse II plant
Rosatom/Tenex (Russia)	~10–12 SWU/year (4th-gen)	Russia has most efficient industrial centrifuges
CNNC (China)	~5–10 SWU/year	Uses self-developed P2-type centrifuges
Iran (IR‑9, prototype)	40–50 SWU/year (theoretical)	No other country uses such large single-unit capacity in practice

 

 

• Iran’s IR-9 (~40–50 SWU) is unique in scale and not matched by any commercial centrifuge in active use.

• The most efficient deployed commercial centrifuges (e.g., in Russia) may reach 10–12 SWU/year, but even that’s considered advanced.

• No country or company is known to operate cascades using centrifuges of IR‑9’s capacity as of 2025.

   

   

   

  ---

  Notes

  • This is fresh fuel load needed annually.

  • Not all fuel is replaced every year: usually 1/3 of the core is refueled annually.

  A 1000 MWe light water reactor will typically buy ~60 tonnes of 3.67% enriched uranium fuel per year, not 180 tonnes.

  Centrifuge Type	SWU/year	Machines Needed for 60 t LEU/year
  IR‑1	~0.9	~300,000
  IR‑6	~6	~45,000
  IR‑9	~45	~6,000

  High-capacity centrifuges (like TC‑12 class with ~50 SWU/year design) are widely deployed in commercial enrichment — but in practice, they are:

   

  • Run below peak capacity (usually 35–45 SWU/year)

  • To optimize stability, cascade control, and longevity

  • And they are very efficient at that load for producing 3–5% LEU fuel.

   

•  

• Category	Estimate
  Total centrifuges in Russia	~900,000–1.2 million units
  TC‑12 / 4th-gen centrifuges	Likely ~100,000–300,000+ units

•  
•  

• Key Differences

  Feature	🇮🇷 IR‑9	🇷🇺 TC‑12
  Development stage	Prototype, single-machine tested	Deployed in mass cascades
  Target SWU	~50 SWU (theoretical)	40–50 SWU (realized or near-realized)
  Cascade deployment	❌ None known	✅ Full industrial-scale cascades
  Reliability	Unproven	Proven for years in high-output facilities
  Design stability	5 bellows, longer rotor (more fragile)	Shorter, optimized for durability

   

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  🧠 Final Conclusion

  ✅ Iran wants the IR‑9 to rival or match the TC‑12,

•  
•  

• Who Are the Western Producers?

  Entity	Role	Technology Level
  Urenco	UK–Germany–Netherlands joint venture	✅ Direct TC‑12 competitor
  Orano (France)	Partner in ETC, runs George Besse II	✅ Deploys ETC centrifuges
  ETC (Enrichment Technology Company)	Joint venture (Urenco + Orano)	✅ TC‑12 designer & builder
  Centrus (USA)	Licensed TC‑21 (AC100) from Urenco tech	⚠️ Limited deployment, no large cascade

   
•  
•  

• 🇪🇺 ETC Deployment Overview

  • Urenco Group operates four enrichment facilities (Almelo, Capenhurst, Gronau, and Eunice, NM) using ETC gas centrifuge technology ans.org+5armscontrol.org+5investors.centrusenergy.com+5osti.gov+11urenco.com+11urenco.com+11.

  • These facilities collectively have a capacity of approximately 18.1 million SWU/year ft.com+8fissilematerials.org+8info.ornl.gov+8.

  • ETC centrifuges used in these facilities are functionally TC‑12 class (i.e., high-efficiency machines around 40–50 SWU/unit).

  ---

  ⚙️ Estimated Number of Centrifuges

  Assuming each centrifuge operates at ~35–45 SWU/year (a realistic production estimate in industrial deployment), we calculate:

  • Low-end estimate (45 SWU/unit):
    
    $18,100,000÷45\approx 402,000$ centrifuge units

  • High-end estimate (35 SWU/unit):
    
    $18,100,000÷35\approx 517,000$ centrifuge units

  ---

  ✅ Final Estimate

  The Urenco‑ETC network currently runs approximately 400,000 to 520,000 centrifuge units equivalent to TC‑12 in its four facilities.

  A 1 GW nuclear power plant should expect to pay around $125–140 million USD to purchase 40 tonnes of 3.67% enriched uranium fuel (as UF₆) on the commercial market in 2025, under standard long-term supply contracts.

• 🇮🇷 Iran has likely invested around $1.2 to $1.8 billion USD in R&D plus mass production capability for 6,000 IR‑6 centrifuges, spanning materials, engineering, testing, factory setup, and workforce development.

• =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

• Sure — let’s go step by step. SWU stands for Separative Work Unit, and it’s a standard unit used to measure the effort required to enrich uranium.

  ---

  🔹 What is Enrichment?

  Natural uranium is mostly U-238 (~99.3%) with only about 0.7% U-235 (the fissile isotope). Nuclear reactors or weapons usually require higher U-235 concentrations:

  • 3–5% U-235 for light water reactors (LWRs),

  • >90% for weapons.

  To raise the U-235 concentration, we use enrichment, which separates isotopes using physical processes like centrifuges.

  ---

  🔹 What is a Separative Work Unit (SWU)?

  SWU quantifies the amount of effort it takes to increase the concentration of U-235 in a uranium sample.
  It depends on three masses:

  1. Feed (F) – the natural uranium you start with

  2. Product (P) – the enriched uranium you want

  3. Tails (W) – the leftover depleted uranium

  It also depends on the U-235 content (or “assay”) of each of these streams.

  ---

  🔹 SWU Formula

  The amount of SWU required is calculated using the following:

  SWU=P⋅V(xp)+W⋅V(xw)−F⋅V(xf)\text{SWU} = P \cdot V(x_p) + W \cdot V(x_w) – F \cdot V(x_f)

  Where:

  • xp,xw,xfx_p, x_w, x_f are the fractions of U-235 in product, waste (tails), and feed

  • The function V(x)=(1−2x)⋅ln⁡(1−xx)V(x) = (1 – 2x) \cdot \ln \left( \frac{1 – x}{x} \right)

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  🔹 Example

  Let’s say:

  • You want 1 kg of uranium at 5% U-235 (i.e. xp=0.05x_p = 0.05),

  • From natural uranium with 0.711% U-235 (i.e. xf=0.00711x_f = 0.00711),

  • You set tails at 0.3% (i.e. xw=0.003x_w = 0.003)

  Using mass balance:

  F=P(xp−xw)xf−xw,W=F−PF = \frac{P(x_p – x_w)}{x_f – x_w} \quad , \quad W = F – P

  You calculate F and W, then plug into the SWU formula.

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  🔹 Why is SWU important?

  • Costing: It helps pricing enrichment services.

  • Planning: It helps determine how many centrifuges or how much effort is needed.

  • Export control & tracking: SWU is used to track proliferation risk.

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  If you’d like, I can now walk you through the exact calculation for a real example (e.g. 1 ton at 3.67% from natural uranium). Would you like to proceed with a sample SWU calculation?

•