Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad instructed the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEO) to start enriching uranium to a 20-percent level, reports Iranian television on Sunday.
“I requested Salehi (Ali Akbar Salehi – IAEO head and Iranian vice-president) to start work on production of 20-percent fuel at centrifuges,” Ahmadinejad informed.
Iran needs 120 kilos of enriched uranium to the level of 19.75 percent for the Tehran research reactor (TRR) to use for medical purposes. According to a framework agreement, worked out by the IAEA last October, the Islamic Republic was suggested to export 1.2 tonnes (around 70 percent of accumulated in the country) low-grade uranium for additional enrichment in Russia and for subsequent production of nuclear fuel in France.
Tehran did not agree to this plan for a long time, noting that it will agree only to stage-by-stage exchange of nuclear material and only in the Iranian territory. Iranian officials repeatedly stated that if the IAEA does not provide the TRR, producing medicines for 800,000 people, with adequate fuel, Iran would start its production on its own.
However, speaking live on Iranian television early this week, Ahmadinejad said that he does not see “special difficulties in exchange (with nuclear fuel) which can be produced both in and outside Iran, given an appropriate treaty is signed”.