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Iranian VP: Iran has produced nuclear fuel to power reactor
By The Associated Press
Tags: Iranian nuclear program, IAEA

Iran has produced its own nuclear fuel pellets made of uranium oxide for the first time to power a heavy-water reactor currently under construction, Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Saturday according to the official IRNA news agency.

The announcement represents a major technological step forward - it is the first time the Iranians have said they can turn uranium into the fuel pellets that are inserted into fuel rods that power nuclear reactors.

Fuel pellets to be used in the 40-megawatt Arak research reactor (in central Iran) have been produced, IRNA quoted Aghazadeh, who heads the country's Atomic Energy Organization, as saying.
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Iran's Arak reactor, which began construction in 2004, is a concern to the West because the spent fuel from a heavy-water facility can be used to produce plutonium, which in turn can be used for a nuclear weapon. UN inspectors last visited the reactor in July, and Iran has said it hopes to have Arak up and running by 2009.

Iran is developing Arak parallel to its better-known light-water reactor
program, like the one being built with Russian help at Bushehr, which hold its own worries for the West. Such light-water reactors use enriched uranium as fuel, but the enrichment process, like plutonium, can also be used to produce the material needed for a nuclear weapon.

Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes including generating electricity, but the United States claims Iran is secretly trying to develop atomic weapons.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, had no
comment Saturday.

Aghazadeh said Iran was already testing the fuel pellets and the fuel rods produced at its nuclear fuel production facilities in Isfahan, located in central Iran.

Aghazadeh also dismissed any possibility of slowing down Iran's uranium
enrichment program, which has already prompted the Security Council to issue two rounds of sanctions against Iran.

"There has been no change or reconsideration in our plans in Natanz. Work is going on as scheduled," Aghazadeh said, referring to Iran's uranium enrichment facility.

Earlier this month, Iran said it has reached a milestone in its uranium
enrichment program, saying the country now has 3,000 uranium-enriching
centrifuges fully operating at Natanz.

The number 3,000 is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment
program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program.

Iran says it plans to expand its enrichment program to up to 54,000
centrifuges at Natanz and is fully within its rights to pursue the enrichment to produce fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The IAEA last week said Iran had installed and fed uranium gas into nearly 3,000 centrifuges. The agency verified that Iran had finished installing eighteen 164-machine cascades at Natanz and that UF-6, or uranium gas, had been fed into all 18 cascades.

Last week's report by the IAEA said Tehran had been generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history, stymieing U.S. efforts to impose new sanctions against Iran.

Aghazadeh said the IAEA report was very big victory, because it cleared up suspicions about two decades of Iran's nuclear activities and the way was now open for compromise
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  1.   Most interesting!now wait for the zionists to jump up & down! 02:13  |  lakshmi 25/11/07
  2.   Lakshmi 02:25  |  Jane 25/11/07
  3.   Now, make a bomb....and hurry 03:31  |  Moshiach 25/11/07
  4.   Jane, intentions and actions 03:35  |  Mark Lincoln 25/11/07
  5.   Zionist go Mental in 4... 3.... 2..... 1..... 04:19  |  POP 25/11/07
  6.   The challenge for the IAEA and everyone 04:29  |  Mark Lincoln 25/11/07
  7.   ISRAEL NEEDS A PRETEXT, NOT THIS INFORMATION 04:58  |  indrajaya 25/11/07
  8.   Mark Lincoln 05:40  |  Jane 25/11/07
  9.   The Greatest Mistake 06:42  |  David \ 25/11/07
  10.   The Greatest Mistake 06:43  |  David Samson 25/11/07
  11.   Strange people 06:52  |  Avi 25/11/07
  12.   # 10 you are not honest 08:03  |  Adel 25/11/07
  13.   Iran is goading Israel, hoping for an attack 08:12  |  Natallie Durson 25/11/07
  14.   Lakshmi, Zionists are relaxed. It is all for peaceful goals. 10:32  |  Rob 25/11/07
  15.   No need for nukes when you can target Dimona 10:45  |  Lynden 25/11/07
  16.   POP Europe and USA are working against it.Tough for you 11:53  |  PETER S.M. 25/11/07
  17.   LAKSHMI.MORE interesting.Is another Islamic bomb good for India? 11:59  |  PETER S .M. 25/11/07
  18.   INDRAJAYA .IAEA says they do not have full access.You know better 12:01  |  PETER S.M. 25/11/07
  19.   Peter S.M # 16 12:10  |  POP 25/11/07
  20.   #6, Mark Lincoln 12:16  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 25/11/07
  21.   LYNDEN Has Iran taken into account the response to hitting Dimona 12:20  |  PETER S.M. 25/11/07
  22.   POP When Was Jesus Christ at the UN? When did he call Christans 12:29  |  PETER S.M. 25/11/07
  23.   # 18, PETER SM 12:30  |  indrajaya 25/11/07
  24.   IONDRAJAYA"Some data could fall into wrong hands.Excuses for Iran 12:58  |  PETER S .M. 25/11/07
  25.   # 24, PETRE SM 13:49  |  indrajaya 25/11/07
  26.   POP 14:05  |  H 25/11/07
  27.   If Israel has the right to Nuclear weapons 14:26  |  Chris Linthwaite 25/11/07
  28.   LINTHWAITE.IRAN has signed the nuclear non proliferation agreemen 14:50  |  PETER SM 25/11/07
  29.   LINTHWAITE.have you not got something better to do on a SUNDAY 14:54  |  PETER S.M. 25/11/07
  30.   # 27, CHRIS LINTHWAITE 15:05  |  indrajaya 25/11/07
  31.   #28 Peter SM 15:33  |  Chris Linthwaite 25/11/07
  32.   # 28, 29, PETER SM (RE: CHRIS) 15:45  |  indrajaya 25/11/07
  33.   Iran`s Ability 16:02  |  BAN ALL WMD 25/11/07
  34.   The settlers are the problem for Israel regarding Iran 16:26  |  Mark B. 25/11/07
  35.   COULD BE CRAFTED INTO A SUPOSITORY 16:34  |  **B.HEDDEM** 25/11/07
  36.   "El Baradei & The Fiddlers" 16:59  |  Stephen 25/11/07
  37.   #35 B Heddem 17:12  |  Chris Linthwaite 25/11/07
  38.   Durson, Kicking Tires 17:29  |  Ambrose 25/11/07
  39.   #13 Natallie Yes 18:20  |  Yosemite 25/11/07
  40.   Natallie "the Iranians are Arabs" Durson 18:38  |  Albert Seligman 25/11/07
  41.   BAN ALL Weak-minded idiots 18:47  |  Albert Seligman 25/11/07
  42.   #41 Albert Seligman 18:58  |  Chris Linthwaite 25/11/07
  43.   #10. Analogy of 5 fingers 19:08  |  AYA 25/11/07
  44.   IAEA should now move hdqts from Vienna, Austria to Tehran, Iran. 19:20  |  mission accomplished 25/11/07
  45.   The least worrisome element of the nuclear program 19:34  |  Tosefta 25/11/07
  46.   C. Lintwaith #37 - even al-Jazeera contradicts you 19:35  |  Moises 25/11/07
  47.   Adel #12 - Actually, he is much less hypocritical 19:53  |  Moises 25/11/07
  48.   Chris 20:31  |  Albert Seligman 25/11/07
  49.   LINJTHWAITE.You asked about Iranian nuclear WEAPONS 21:32  |  PETER S .M. 25/11/07
  50.   #48 Albert Seligman 21:56  |  Chris Linthwaite 25/11/07
  51.   #49 Peter SM 22:01  |  Chris Linthwaite 25/11/07
  52.   #11 Avi 22:31  |  Observer 25/11/07
  53.   Iran threats, Hamas threats, and Israel and Arabs make peace. 23:03  |  Fortuna Benmayor 25/11/07
  54.   ?? 23:07  |  Albert Seligman 25/11/07
  55.   To Peter SM 23:12  |  Mark B. 25/11/07
  56.   #53 Benmayor 00:11  |  Shahin 26/11/07
  57.   #53 Benmayor 00:19  |  Shahin 26/11/07
  58.   To Albert Seligman re Chris - Part I 00:36  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
  59.   To Albert Seligman re Chris - Part II 00:51  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
  60.   Nuclear fuel, disarm usa 01:25  |  Amin 26/11/07
  61.   To Albert Seligman re Chris - Part III 01:38  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
  62.   Quite correct Tosefta 01:41  |  Mark Lincoln 26/11/07
  63.   Peter SM 01:42  |  Mark Lincoln 26/11/07
  64.   Moises - arguments of ignorance 01:45  |  Mark Lincoln 26/11/07
  65.   To Chris Linthwaite re Albert Seligman 01:50  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
  66.   To Moises #46 01:55  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
  67.   The pattern of behavior 01:56  |  Mark Lincoln 26/11/07
  68.   #66. You are painting the Arabs with too wide a brush. 04:36  |  ManintheMiddle 26/11/07
  69.   To ManintheMiddle 05:06  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
  70.   #47. You are wrong on all counts. 05:25  |  ManintheMiddle 26/11/07
  71.   To the Kitty. 05:46  |  ManintheMiddle 26/11/07
  72.   To ManintheMiddle #71 06:50  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
  73.   Good, More Radiation to Scatter over Southern Iran 07:16  |  Efox 26/11/07
  74.   re: ManintheMiddle 07:22  |  Efox 26/11/07
  75.   64Mark Lincoln Was N. Korea poorer then Iran? 08:36  |  Rob 26/11/07
  76.   To Efox #74 19:40  |  Persian Kitty 26/11/07
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