Tehran, June 13: Iran has produced over 50 kg of 20-percent enriched uranium and would triple the output from the current level to supply fuel to the Tehran research reactor, an official said here Sunday.
“We need 120 kg enrichment up to 20 percent. Of course, we have been able to produce successfully over 50 kg,” said Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s permanent representative to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“But we still need (more), we have to speed up, because Tehran research reactor is in desperate need for fuel,” he said here in an exclusive interview with Xinhua. The reactor will produce radioisotopes for hospitals.
Soltanieh said the Iranian parliament has passed a bill to build more nuclear power plants in the country to produce some 20,000-megawatt of electricity.
He said Iran will welcome any country that is ready to participate in the project. Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Tuesday that Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran’s first such plant, will be connected to the national grid within a month.
——–IANS