Iran becomes self-sufficient in producing nuclear yellowcake
Monday, 6 December 2010
TEHRAN, Dec. 5 (agencies): Head of Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said Sunday that Iran has become self-sufficient in producing nuclear yellowcake, state TV reported.
In a live broadcast from Iran's IRINN state TV channel, Salehi said that the country's first domestically produced nuclear yellowcake was shipped to central city of Isfahan for processing.
The country has no problem for producing yellowcake anymore, he told reporters in Isfahan.
Yellowcake is a kind of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Typically yellowcakes are obtained through the milling and chemical processing of uranium ore is insoluble in water and contains about 80 percent uranium oxide.
Another report adds: Iran says it has delivered its first domestically produced raw uranium, or yellowcake, to a plant that can make it ready for enrichment.
The statement, from Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, comes the day before talks between Iran and world powers over its nuclear programme.
Enriched uranium can be used for fuel in reactors or made into nuclear bombs.
The US and its allies believe Iran may be trying to produce nuclear weapons, a claim denied by Iran. Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful, civilian purposes.
The claim comes ahead of talks in Geneva Monday between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - and Germany.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Iran to enter the talks in good faith and with "a much more sober assessment of what isolation means", given successive rounds of UN sanctions.
The sanctions have been levelled at Iran's failure to comply with UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to stop uranium enrichment.
The Security Council has said that until Iran's peaceful intentions can be fully established, it should stop enrichment and other nuclear activities.
Iran says that as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the right to enrich uranium for fuel for civil nuclear power.
Meanwhile: The step displays Iran's determination to master nuclear technology without outside help, including by enriching its own uranium, just a day before world powers meet Iranian officials in Geneva in another attempt to persuade them to freeze that work.
Nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, was produced at the Gachin uranium mine in southern Iran and delivered to the uranium conversion facility in the central city of Isfahan for reprocessing.
In a live broadcast from Iran's IRINN state TV channel, Salehi said that the country's first domestically produced nuclear yellowcake was shipped to central city of Isfahan for processing.
The country has no problem for producing yellowcake anymore, he told reporters in Isfahan.
Yellowcake is a kind of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Typically yellowcakes are obtained through the milling and chemical processing of uranium ore is insoluble in water and contains about 80 percent uranium oxide.
Another report adds: Iran says it has delivered its first domestically produced raw uranium, or yellowcake, to a plant that can make it ready for enrichment.
The statement, from Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, comes the day before talks between Iran and world powers over its nuclear programme.
Enriched uranium can be used for fuel in reactors or made into nuclear bombs.
The US and its allies believe Iran may be trying to produce nuclear weapons, a claim denied by Iran. Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful, civilian purposes.
The claim comes ahead of talks in Geneva Monday between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - and Germany.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Iran to enter the talks in good faith and with "a much more sober assessment of what isolation means", given successive rounds of UN sanctions.
The sanctions have been levelled at Iran's failure to comply with UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to stop uranium enrichment.
The Security Council has said that until Iran's peaceful intentions can be fully established, it should stop enrichment and other nuclear activities.
Iran says that as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the right to enrich uranium for fuel for civil nuclear power.
Meanwhile: The step displays Iran's determination to master nuclear technology without outside help, including by enriching its own uranium, just a day before world powers meet Iranian officials in Geneva in another attempt to persuade them to freeze that work.
Nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, was produced at the Gachin uranium mine in southern Iran and delivered to the uranium conversion facility in the central city of Isfahan for reprocessing.