Teh One Who Knocks
02-15-2012, 11:58 AM
By the CNN Wire Staff
http://i.imgur.com/3XF1O.jpg
Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran will install domestically-produced nuclear fuel rods into a research reactor Wednesday with the president in attendance, the official news agency reported.
The indigenous nuclear fuel rods are a giant step in the nation's nuclear program, according to ISNA, the news agency.
Tehran announced last month that it had succeeded in building and testing a domestically-produced nuclear fuel rod, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported at the time.
The uranium fuel rod was tested successfully and installed in the core of a research reactor in Tehran, the news agency said, citing Iran's atomic energy agency website.
Fuel rods are stacks of low-enriched uranium pellets bundled together at the core of a nuclear reactor. The announcement appeared aimed at demonstrating Iran's growing sophistication in developing a home-grown nuclear program, amid fears from the West that it will use its knowledge to build nuclear weapons.
"Because Western countries were unwilling to help us, we began enriching uranium to 20% to make nuclear fuel rods," Ali Bagheri, deputy chief of Iran's national security council, told the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti on Tuesday. Iranian news agencies quoted the Russian news agency report.
"These nuclear rods, the first created by Iranian specialists, will be inserted ... into the Tehran research reactor in the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," Bagheri said.
In January 2008, Fars reported that Iran was able to produce everything it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program self-sufficient. But it was not clear that Tehran actually had the technology to turn enriched uranium into fuel rods.
Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes only. But it has rebuffed repeated demands to halt its production of enriched uranium, and a November report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog found "credible" information that Tehran has carried out work toward nuclear weapons -- including tests of possible bomb components.
After the January report, the governing council of the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution expressing "deep and increasing concern about the unresolved issues regarding the Iranian nuclear program."
The Islamic republic responded to the IAEA report by calling it a fabrication aimed at bolstering U.S. accusations that Iran is working toward a bomb.
"We will never ever suspend our enrichment," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's permanent envoy to the IAEA, said in November.
In December, the United States as well as several other Western and Asian nations announced increased sanctions against Iran in an international effort to tighten the screws around the suspected nuclear weapons program.
http://i.imgur.com/3XF1O.jpg
Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran will install domestically-produced nuclear fuel rods into a research reactor Wednesday with the president in attendance, the official news agency reported.
The indigenous nuclear fuel rods are a giant step in the nation's nuclear program, according to ISNA, the news agency.
Tehran announced last month that it had succeeded in building and testing a domestically-produced nuclear fuel rod, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported at the time.
The uranium fuel rod was tested successfully and installed in the core of a research reactor in Tehran, the news agency said, citing Iran's atomic energy agency website.
Fuel rods are stacks of low-enriched uranium pellets bundled together at the core of a nuclear reactor. The announcement appeared aimed at demonstrating Iran's growing sophistication in developing a home-grown nuclear program, amid fears from the West that it will use its knowledge to build nuclear weapons.
"Because Western countries were unwilling to help us, we began enriching uranium to 20% to make nuclear fuel rods," Ali Bagheri, deputy chief of Iran's national security council, told the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti on Tuesday. Iranian news agencies quoted the Russian news agency report.
"These nuclear rods, the first created by Iranian specialists, will be inserted ... into the Tehran research reactor in the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," Bagheri said.
In January 2008, Fars reported that Iran was able to produce everything it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program self-sufficient. But it was not clear that Tehran actually had the technology to turn enriched uranium into fuel rods.
Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes only. But it has rebuffed repeated demands to halt its production of enriched uranium, and a November report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog found "credible" information that Tehran has carried out work toward nuclear weapons -- including tests of possible bomb components.
After the January report, the governing council of the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution expressing "deep and increasing concern about the unresolved issues regarding the Iranian nuclear program."
The Islamic republic responded to the IAEA report by calling it a fabrication aimed at bolstering U.S. accusations that Iran is working toward a bomb.
"We will never ever suspend our enrichment," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's permanent envoy to the IAEA, said in November.
In December, the United States as well as several other Western and Asian nations announced increased sanctions against Iran in an international effort to tighten the screws around the suspected nuclear weapons program.