Iran to manufacture uranium metal in latest violation of nuclear deal
Tehran officials informed the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that assembly equipment is being prepared to produce the nuclear fuel.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations announced his government has begun preparations to manufacture uranium metal, a fuel used in nuclear reactors that can also be used as a central component in a nuclear warhead, in the Islamic Republic’s latest violation of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Research and Development “activities related to the design of an improved type of fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor started,” Kazem Gharib Abadi, the Islamic Republic’s permanent representative to the UN, announced on Twitter on Wednesday.
“Natural uranium will be used to produce uranium metal in the first stage,” he wrote, adding that the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, was informed of the move and had conducted an inspection of the country’s main nuclear production site at Isfahan.
Abadi’s announcement came as IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi informed member states yesterday that Iranian officials had revealed their government was preparing assembly equipment to produce uranium metal at Isfahan’s fuel plate fabrication plant.
