Tehran, February 11: Iran has produced a “first stock” of 20 percent enriched uranium for its nuclear programme and is capable of enriching it to 80 percent but will not do so, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday.
In a speech marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, the president said Iran would soon triple its daily production of low-enriched uranium (3.5 percent).
“The head of the atomic energy organisation said the first stock of 20 percent fuel was produced and delivered to scientists,” he said at Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square before hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathered to mark the anniversary.
“Why do they (world powers) think that 20 percent is such a big deal? Right now in Natanz we have the capability to enrich at over 20 percent and at over 80 percent, but because we don’t need it we won’t do it.”
Ahmadinejad also said that at Natanz, where Iran has been enriching uranium, Tehran has the ability to manufacture several dozen kilos of low-enriched uranium.
“They think it is such a big job to take some hundred kilos of 3.5 pct uranium out of Iran,” he said, referring to a UN-drafted deal which proposes to take out Tehran’s stock of LEU abroad in exchange for higher grade material.
“We are making several kilos of this in Natanz every day. In the near future, inshallah, our daily production will be tripled,” the president said.
—Agencies