Iran opens uranium mines, yellowcake plant

TEHRAN,April 10 (MNA) – Iran started extraction from two uranium mines and opened a yellowcake plant on Tuesday to mark National Nuclear Technology Day. Operations began at the Saghand 1 and 2 mines in the central province of Yazd and the Shahid Rezaeinejad yellowcake plant in the town of Ardakan in the same province by order of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who attended a ceremony held in Tehran to celebrate the occasion. The Shahid Rezaeinejad facility has the capacity to produce about 60 tons of yellowcake, the raw material for uranium enrichment. Iran and world powers held two days of talks in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Friday and Saturday to help resolve a decade-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, but failed to reach any agreement. Iran’s higher-grade uranium enrichment program lies at the heart of the controversy. Iran denies Western accusations that it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability and says its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and insists that its right to uranium enrichment, as enumerated in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, must be recognized. During the ceremony, an electrostatic nuclear accelerator, which has medical and industrial applications, and five new domestically produced radioisotopes were also unveiled. Radioisotope is a radioactive isotope which is used in physical and biological researches and therapeutics. The radioisotopes which are produced in Iran are mainly used for diagnosis and treatment of various cancers or are used to alleviate cancer-related pains. President Ahmadinejad delivered a speech in which he said that Iran would push ahead with its nuclear program. “Today, Iran has gone nuclear, and no one can take it away from us,” he said, adding, “No one is able to put the brakes on the country’s nuclear achievements.” Iran to build new nuclear powers plants Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) director Fereydoun Abbasi also said in the ceremony that preparations had been made to start the construction of at least two 1000 megawatt nuclear power plants during the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21. Commenting on the proposal put forward by world powers in the previous round of talks in Almaty on February 26 and 27, Abbasi said that Iran would continue producing enriched uranium to a purity level of 20 percent as much as it needed. According to the New York Times, the major powers demanded that Iran suspend enrichment work at the Fordo facility - where it enriches uranium to 20 percent - and agree to unspecified conditions that would make it hard to quickly resume production. They also said Iran could continue to keep a small amount of uranium enriched to 20 percent for use in the Tehran research reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer treatment. “We produced 20 percent enriched uranium to keep the Tehran research reactor operational, and we will produce it as long as we need this fuel, and in view of the fact that we plan to build five new research reactors in the country, we need to continue producing this fuel,” Abbasi said.