Iran's 20% Enriched N. Fuel Stockpile Stands at 40kg
News number: 8910181207 15:30 | 2011-01-08
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8910181207

TEHRAN (FNA)- Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali
Akbar Salehi announced on Saturday that the country has, thus far, produced
almost 40kg of 20-percent-enriched uranium to supply fuel to the Tehran
research reactor.

"We have produced about 40kg of 20% (enriched) uranium and we hope to
witness the injection of the first batch of Iran-made 20% fuel to the Tehran
research reactor soon," Salehi told FNA.

Salehi had in June announced that Iran is potentially capable of producing
five kilograms of 20-percent enriched uranium per month.

Elsewhere, he announced Tehran's preparedness to resume talks with the
Vienna Group (the US, Russia, France and the International Atomic Energy
Agency) on the swap of nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor, and
said the more they delay in holding a new round of negotiations with us,
"the more progress we make in fuel production and after a while the issue of
fuel swap will become meaningless".

Stressing that Iran is one of the few countries capable of producing fuel
rods and plates to be used for peaceful purposes, Salehi said Iran's
progress in this ground was a result of the West's lack of cooperation and
sanctions.

"Actually the West's attitude made us reach the point."

After Iran announced to the IAEA in 2009 that it had run out of nuclear fuel
for its research reactor in Tehran, the Agency proposed a deal according to
which Iran would send 3.5-percent-enriched uranium and receive
20-percent-enriched uranium from potential suppliers in return, all through
the UN nuclear watchdog agency.

The proposal was first introduced on October 1, 2009 when Iranian
representatives and diplomats from the Group 5+1 held high-level talks in
Geneva.

But France and the United States, as potentials suppliers, stalled the talks
soon after the start. They offered a deal which would keep Tehran waiting
for months before it could obtain the fuel, a luxury of time that Iran could
not afford as it is about to run out of 20-percent-enriched uranium.

The Iranian parliament rejected the deal after technical studies showed that
it would only take two to three months for any country to further enrich the
nuclear stockpile and turn it into metal nuclear rods for the Tehran
Research Reactor, while suppliers had announced that they would not return
fuel to Iran any less than seven months.

Iran then put forward its own proposal that envisaged a two-staged exchange.
According to Tehran's offer, the IAEA would safeguard nearly one third of
Iran's uranium stockpile inside the Iranian territory for the time that it
took to find a supplier. The western countries opposed Tehran's proposal.

Yet, the western countries opposed Iran's proposal again. Subsequently,
Iranian, Brazilian and Turkish officials on May 17, 2010 signed an agreement
named the 'Tehran Declaration' which presented a solution to the
longstanding standoff between Iran and potential suppliers of nuclear fuel.
According to the agreement, Iran would send some 1200 kg of its 3.5%
enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for a total 120 kg of 20% enriched
fuel.

But again the western countries showed a negative and surprising reaction to
the Tehran Declaration and sponsored a sanctions resolution against Iran at
the UN Security Council instead of taking the opportunity presented by the
agreement.

Russia, France, and the US, in three separate letters, instead of giving a
definite response to the Tehran Declaration, raised some questions about the
deal, and the US took a draft sanctions resolution against Iran to the UN
Security Council, which was later approved by the Council.

Iran in a letter responded to the questions raised by the Vienna Group on
the Tehran Declaration and voiced its preparedness to hold talks.

In a later move, IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano proposed a plan to
resume talks between the two sides, and former Iranian Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki announced Tehran's agreement with Amano's proposal.

"Iran is ready to take part in the meeting brokered by Amano," Mottaki said.

He referred to Iran's letter to Amano in which the country had declared its
readiness for talks with the Vienna Group and said, "Mr. Amano has forwarded
the letter to other members of the group and it seems that he is arranging
for holding the meeting."

Mottaki said that the country wants to determine and approve details of fuel
swap through talks with Vienna Group.

Yet, despite all the efforts Iran has made so far to swap or supply fuel
from potential suppliers West has refrained to do so.

After Iran saw western suppliers rock the boat and shrug off their
responsibility - as enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) statute - it started domestic
plans to enrich uranium to the purity level of 20 percent.

In April 2010, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the AEOI head
to start domestic plans to supply fuel for the Tehran research reactor which
produces radioisotopes for medicinal use.