Iran says to resume nuclear fuel research soon

A top Iranian nuclear official said on Tuesday that Iran would resume work on nuclear fuel research in a few days after a suspension of over two years, state television reported.

"It has been decided that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be informed in a letter that Iran will start the research work on the nuclear fuel in a few days," Mohammad Saidi, deputy chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency was quoted as saying.

Saidi said Iran's resumption of the fuel cycle research would be carried out under the supervision and cooperation of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog.

The official did not elaborate on what specific activities would be restarted, saying that Iran voluntarily suspended them two and a half years ago.

Saidi also said that the activities to be resumed were just related to research and had nothing to do with the actual production, stressing that Iran would keep the suspension on the fuel production.

"It has nothing to do with the production of nuclear fuel. The two things are different from each other. No decision has been made about the nuclear fuel production," Saidi added.

Under the persuasion of the European Union (EU), Iran suspended uranium enrichment in October 2003, signed the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in December 2003 and froze peripheral work related to enrichment in November 2004.

However, Tehran resumed uranium conversion activities, a precursor to enrichment, in early August 2004, a move that had stranded the nuclear negotiations with the EU for months.

Due to Tehran's toughness on the resumed work, the EU and the United States in November reset their redline on the Iranian nuclear issue, allowing Iran to perform the conversion work on the condition that the actual enrichment process be transferred to Russia.

Russia has recently delivered its proposal to establish a joint venture in Russia to enrich uranium for Iran, but Tehran termed the suggestion as an immature structure which needs to be complemented and supported.

Based on Washington's accusation that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons secretly, the EU insists that Iran's complete command of uranium enrichment could lead to military use of the technology.

Iran and the EU have decided to open another round of talks on Jan. 18.

Iran said on Sunday that it has developed a key technology to separate uranium from its ore with the so-called "mixer-settler", which marked a significant step closer to the country's ambition to construct and run nuclear fuel cycle independently.

Enriched uranium, a key material for nuclear fuel cycle, can be used also to build atomic bombs.

Tehran rejects the US charge as politically motivated, saying its nuclear research is fully peaceful.

Source: Xinhua