Iran announces resumption of atomic fuel research

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran announced on Tuesday it would
resume nuclear fuel research, a move sure to anger Washington
and the European Union who fear Iran wants to make atomic fuel
to build bombs.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy
Organization, said Tehran had informed the U.N. nuclear
watchdog in writing that nuclear research would resume shortly.

“Within the next few days we will start researching that
field in cooperation and coordination with the IAEA
(International Atomic Energy Agency),” Saeedi told state
television.

The news coincided with strong hints from Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi that Tehran planned to reject a
Russian compromise proposal aimed at defusing Iran’s nuclear
row with the West.

Asefi said a proposed joint venture to enrich uranium in
Russia was only acceptable if it was in addition to enrichment
facilities in Iran.

Iran says it only wants to produce low-grade enriched
uranium for use in nuclear power rectors and not, as the West
suspects, highly enriched uranium for atomic weapons.

Iran had suspended nuclear fuel research as well as all
uranium processing and enrichment as part of negotiations with
the European Union trio of Britain, Germany and France that
started in October 2003.

Research on nuclear fuel may include some small-scale
testing of sensitive atomic processes, including uranium
enrichment, an activity Iran has said it is keen to master and
perfect.

Tehran began to roll back the suspension in August by
restarting its uranium conversion facility at Isfahan,
prompting the EU trio to pull out of the talks with Iran.

The talks resumed last month and both sides are due to meet
again this month.