Iran’s New Nuclear Site to Get Activated
A new uranium enrichment plan has been given a clearance by the President of Iran, Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Revealing this news, Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, senior advisor to the President said to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) on Monday, "The president has confirmed the designated location of a new nuclear site and the construction process of the new site will begin upon the president's order,"
He added,” "The locations of new nuclear sites, which the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) plans to build this year, have been verified. The construction process of these sites is currently underway,"
Ali Akbar Salehi, Chief of AEOI had earlier in February had mentioned that the construction of two new enrichment sites would start by March 2011.
In the meanwhile work for uranium enrichment to the level of less than 20 percent that is required for nuclear research reactor has already been started at Tehran in Iran.
This decision is a direct consequence of the west’s failure to respond to Iran’s concerns over a nuclear fuel swap deal which was being mediated by the UN. As a part of this deal Iran was to send abroad most of its low enriched uranium for processing and conversion to fuel rods for the research reactor. While Iran had agreed to the deal, it wanted a assurance that the other party would keep providing the fuel in a consistent manner.
It was also shared by Samareh Hashemi that the domestic production of enriched uranium was not a deal stopper to Iran’s importing of fuel from outside and that Iran was still open for discussions. “The domestic production of nuclear fuel does not contradict importing it,” he said.
“We have started to enrich uranium domestically based on our need to provide fuel for the Tehran research reactor and this process will continue until our needs are met.”
Iran plans to have discussions with all other members of the UN Security Council on the issue of nuclear fuel swap. This was informed by the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Meanwhile Iran has been accused by the US and its allies of seeking nuclear weaponry which has been denied by the country.
On the contrary it has reiterated that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency the country has a right to the pursuance of peaceful nuclear technology.
