“We produced 20-percent-enriched uranium for Tehran’s Research Reactor and we will continue producing it as long as we need the fuel,” Fereydoun Abbasi said on Tuesday.
Abbasi made the remarks on the sidelines of the unveiling ceremony of three nuclear achievements.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday issued the order to launch Shahid Rezaeinejad yellowcake production plant and Saghand uranium mines in the central city of Ardakan, and Iran’s first industrial electron accelerator in the city of Taft, Yazd Province.
The uranium extracted from Saghand mines in Yazd will be processed and turned into yellowcake in Shahid Rezaeinejad complex.
“We produce (the fuel) as much as necessary. We will neither send our nuclear material abroad nor will we downgrade it… Other countries had better make rational requests,” the Iranian official said.
He made the remark in response to a question about media speculations that the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US plus Germany) has asked Iran to turn 20-percent uranium into lower-enriched material during the latest round of the talks held on April 5-6 in the Kazakh city of Almaty.
The Iranian official reiterated that Iran’s enrichment activities were completely under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and therefore there was no cause for concern.
The United States, the Israeli regime and some of their allies falsely claim that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with the US and the European Union using the claim as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on Iran.
Iran categorically rejects the allegation and says it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and a member of the IAEA.
