‘Iran has 25 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium’

Tehran, Aug 27 – Iran has produced 25 kg of uranium enriched to 20 percent for its medical reactor in Tehran, the head of the country’s atomic energy organisation said Friday.

ISNA news agency quoted Ali-Akbar Salehi as saying that Iran would eventually turn the 20-percent uranium into fuel rods and for that purpose was trying to finish construction of its first fuel producing site by September 2011.

Iran started the 20-percent enrichment process in February and Salehi claims the country could produce five kg of 20-percent enriched uranium per month.

He also said that the over 40-year-old Tehran reactor would eventually be replaced by a more powerful medical reactor.

Tehran initially planned to swap its 3.5-percent enriched uranium with Russia and France in exchange for higher-grade fuel for the Tehran reactor.

But the deal initiated by the International Atomic Energy Agency in October stalled, despite mediation by Brazil and Turkey and an agreement inked in May with the two countries to store Iran’s low-enriched uranium in Turkey until the swap.

Iran still says that if the swap agreement was realised, the country would stop the 20-percent enrichment.

The West fears Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, a charge Tehran denies, and enriching uranium to 20 percent is a significant threshold towards the capability to produce weapons-grade uranium.

According to a long-term plan, 10 new enrichment sites are to be built in the coming years, including at least one in 2011.

IANS