Iran to use own fuel plates

Iran is to insert its first domestically produced uranium fuel into its Tehran reactor by mid-February, said Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Thursday. “Within the next two months the first fuel plate which is produced with the 20 per cent enriched uranium will be placed in Tehran's research reactor,” Mr. Salehi, who headed Iran's nuclear organisation, was quoted as saying. The West is sceptical that the Islamic republic has the technology to make fuel plates.

Iran has been working to enrich its stock of 3.5 per cent low-enriched uranium to 20 per cent, which it says it needs for research and medical purposes.