Iran among 8 Countries with Full Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Ex-Negotiator

A former member of Iran’s negotiating team with world powers said the Islamic Republic is among the world’s top eight countries that possess a complete nuclear fuel cycle.

Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Mohammad Saeedi highlighted the country’s progress in peaceful nuclear energy and said technically, Iran has no problem in developing nuclear knowledge.

“Regarding the nuclear issue, we are the only country in the region that has a nuclear power plant (producing) 1,000 megawatts (MW),” he said, adding that the plant is now fully operated by Iranian experts.

The former member of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team further said that the country is among the top 8 countries in the world in terms of the nuclear fuel cycle.

"We (the Islamic Republic) have been able to create a complete nuclear fuel cycle,” Saeedi went on to say.

Earlier last month, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said the country has started taking initial measures to develop a 20%-enriched fuel used for nuclear reactors.

“In the nuclear science and industry, we have made so much progress that we can design modern fuel ourselves instead of reverse engineering and using others’ designs, which is a great achievement for the country,” Salehi said at the time.

“Tehran’s nuclear reactor has been working with old fuel but the modern fuel would boost the reactor's efficiency,” he noted.

Iran in recent years has made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment in the area of peaceful nuclear technology.

In December 2017, an exhibition of the country’s nuclear achievements was staged in the central city of Najafabad in Isfahan province.

The nuclear achievements showcased in the exhibition covered various areas such as nuclear enrichment, heavy water production, nuclear power plants, Arak research reactor, nuclear agriculture, nuclear medicine and health, sanitation, nuclear fuel and nuclear safety.

source: Tasnim News Agency