Iran in Talks with Russia on Exchanging Enriched, Natural Uranium, Developing Centrifuges

Tehran is holding talks with Moscow to sell its enriched uranium to Russia and take help from its Northern neighbor for enhancing its centrifuges.

“Assistance to enhance the designing of our existing centrifuge machines in a way that they can produce stable isotopes is among the Russians’ undertakings (based on the July 14 nuclear agreement between Tehran and the world powers) and they are among the most powerful and pioneering countries in the world in this field and they have announced their preparedness

to cooperate and improve Iran’s centrifuges to produce stable isotopes,” Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said after meeting Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Director-General Sergey Kirienko in Vienna on Tuesday.

He said based on the nuclear agreement Russia is also due to purchase Iran’s enriched uranium and supply Tehran with natural uranium, adding that he has discussed methods to fulfill this job with the Russian officials.

In late April, AEOI Deputy Head and Spokesman BehrouzKamalvandi and Deputy Head of Rosatom Nicolai Spassky in a meeting in Tehran conferred on cooperation between the two countries in building two new power plants.

During the meeting, Kamalvandi and Spassky discussed building Bushehr II and III nuclear power plants due to be constructed near Iran’s first nuclear power plant in the Southern city of Bushehr.

They also discussed the method for delivering full control of the Bushehr nuclear power plant to Iranian experts.

Early April, Kamalvandi travelled to Moscow to follow up on the trend of nuclear cooperation between the two states.

“I will follow up the recent contract signed by Iran and Russia on construction of two nuclear power plants in Bushehr during my visit to Moscow,” he said.

The Iranian atomic official said in early March that practical measures are underway for the start of the construction of two nuclear power plants for Iran according to a recent deal signed by the two countries’ top nuclear officials.

Kamalvandi had said that construction of the nuclear power plants would start in the current Iranian year.

Meantime, Salehi had also stated that Iran and Russia would launch cooperation in supplying nuclear fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

“We inked an agreement with the Russians in 1995 in which they have announced their preparedness that if Iran produces four fuel batches by itself or with the help of others every year, they will do the needed tests and evaluations over them for maximum 26 fuel batches in 10 years, and if they don’t see any technical problem, they will load them into the heart of the reactor,” Salehi said.

FNA

R.S