Iran begins process for producing nuclear fuel plates

Iran will start producing plate type nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor in the near future, Presidential advisor Mojtaba Hashemi-Samareh said, Mehr News Agency reported.

"We will produce nuclear fuel plates so that the world understands that if Iranian scientists want, they can reach the heights of progress and honor," Hashemi-Samareh told a gathering of students and professors in Qazvin on Monday.

On Tuesday Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Fereydoun Abbasi announced that the installation of the machinery needed for producing nuclear fuel plates has started.

"20 percent enriched nuclear fuel is being produced, and we do not have any problems in providing nuclear fuel for the Tehran reactor," he said.

He added that the AEOI’s first priority is producing 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel plates to power the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment.

Abbasi also said that the AEOI plans to produce 3 to 5 percent enriched nuclear fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is currently powered by nuclear fuel produced in Russia.

The nuclear plant for converting enriched nuclear fuel into fuel rods was inaugurated in Isfahan in early spring 2009.

Iranian officials had previously said that the technology for producing nuclear fuel plates does not differ greatly from the technology for producing nuclear fuel rods.


/Trend/