Iran will produce 20-percent enriched uranium by March 2012

Today, Tehran has no problems with a fuel supply to the Amirabad nuclear reactor, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Firudin Abbasi was quoted as saying by the Iranian news agency MEHR. However, Iran will produce fuel for this reactor inside the country by late this year, he said. The Iranian new year begins in March.

"We have temporarily provided the Amirabad nuclear reactor with the existing fuel, we will produce 20-percent enriched uranium fuel and provide the reactor by late this year," Abbasi said.

The Amirabad Research Reactor requires 120 kilograms of uranium enriched to 19.75-percent for medical purposes. The reactor was built in 1960.

In late October of 2010, the IAEA demanded Iran to give Russia 1,200 kg of 3.5-percent enriched uranium in exchange for a 20-percent enriched uranium. Iran stated that it agreed to a simultaneous exchange on its territory.

The tripartite agreement on the exchange of uranium was reached May 17 between Iran, Turkey and Brazil. The foreign ministers of these countries signed a draft agreement for the exchange of Tehran's low-enriched uranium (up to 3.5 percent) for highly enriched uranium (up to 20 percent) for the Tehran research reactor. The Iranian uranium would be sent to Turkey in a month after the signing of an agreement between Tehran and the IAEA.

In 2010, the then head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, now Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the uranium fuel necessary for the Tehran reactor will be produced by the end of the year.

"Today, the country enriched 25 kg of uranium to 20-percent, and fuel necessary for the Tehran reactor will be produced by the end of the year," he said.


/Trend/