Iran has reportedly demonstrated its ability to produce uranium reactor fuel using only its own facilities.
The announcement by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency Sunday comes as sanctions against Iran’s central bank by the U.S. took effect a day earlier, and recent medium-range missile tests by Iran’s navy further inflamed proliferation fears.
The fuel rod was reported to have been tested successfully at the Tehran Research Reactor, where studies are ongoing. The country operates gas-centrifuge enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow, with most or all of their nuclear material derived from a 531 t purchase of uranium oxide from South Africa in 1980, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Iran claims it uses its enrichment facilities solely for peaceful purposes, such as the production of medical isotopes in the research reactor or as fuel for power reactors. It has only one operating civilian nuclear power plant. Russia, which helped build the Bushehr-1 reactor that connected to the grid last fall, reached an agreement with Iran to provide fuel for that plant with the caveat that spent fuel be sent back to Russia. Nonetheless, Iran has developed its enrichment technology since about 2000 without any clear commercial purpose, provoking condemnation from the United Nations. In addition to the low-enriched uranium used in civilian power reactors, the head of Iran’s nuclear agency confirmed in August that the country has produced more uranium at nearly 20 percent U-235 enrichment than it needs for the research reactor. Western powers reacted with particular alarm to the increasing volume of material enriched at the higher level, as about 90 percent of the energy needed to enrich uranium to weapons-grade is expended enriching to 20 percent, according to the WNA.
In addition to the recently tightened U.S. sanctions, the European Union will decide by the end of the month whether to enact a ban on Iranian oil imports and other sanctions of its own. Tensions in recent weeks were further escalated by naval exercises in the Persian Gulf and reported tests of Iranian-built missiles capable of reaching U.S. military bases and Israel. Despite the saber-rattling, Iranian media reports Saturday also said the country’s top negotiator on nuclear matters would propose renewed talks with representatives from the five permanent member countries of the U.N. Security Council, as well as Germany.