 Iran produces first uranium yellowcake from southern mine Tehran (AFP) Dec 5, 2010 - Iran has produced its first batch of uranium yellowcake, the raw material for enrichment, from a mine in the south of the country, atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday. "The West had counted on the possibility of us being in trouble over raw material but today we had the first batch of yellowcake from Gachin mine sent to Isfahan (conversion) facility," Salehi said on state television. Conversion is the process by which yellowcake is converted into uranium hexafluoride for enrichment. The atomic chief said the new step made Iran "self-sufficient" in the entire nuclear fuel cycle as it had previously been obliged to import yellowcake from abroad but he declined to reveal the amount of the first domestically produced batch. "We cannot cover the overall need of the Isfahan facility but we will produce a significant part of it" from the Gachin mine near the Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas, Salehi said. He said Iran would formally notify the International Atomic Energy Agency of its yellowcake production. The announcement came as Iran is poised to hold a new round of talks with world powers on its controversial nuclear programme in Geneva on Monday. Uranium enrichment lies at the heart of Western concerns about Iran's nuclear activities as the process can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or in highly extended form the fissile core of an atom bomb. Iran denies seeking a weapons capability but has pressed on with uranium enrichment in defiance of repeated UN Security Council ultimatums. |
"The International Atomic Energy Agency has dispatched spies of foreign agencies among its inspectors and thus should be held accountable for this move," he was quoted by state-run television's website as saying.
Moslehi did not elaborate, except to say that "international organisations that should prevent such acts are not fulfilling their duties."
This is not the first time that Iranian officials have singled out nuclear inspectors.
In late June, the Islamic republic barred two UN atomic watchdog inspectors from the country over a "false" nuclear report.
And last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said world powers were against solving the controversy over Iran's nuclear programme and accused the IAEA of "giving information" to Washington.
This week Iran also launched a verbal attack on the United Nations, especially the Security Council, after two bombings on Monday in Tehran resulted in the death of one nuclear scientist and the wounding of another.
One of the two victims was on the list published by the United Nations of nuclear officials subject to international sanctions, and Tehran has accused the international organisation of providing targets for Israeli and western intelligence agencies.
"The three spy agencies of Mossad, CIA and MI6 had a role in the (attacks) and, with the arrest of these people, we will find new clues to arrest other elements," Moslehi said on Thursday.
On Thursday the authorities said "some elements" working with Western spy agencies had been arrested in connection with Monday's bombings that killed Majid Shahriari and wounded Fereydoon Abbasi Davani.
Tehran has also admitted implicitly for the first time this week that its uranium enrichment plant in the central city of Natanz, which is regularly inspected by the IAEA, had been the victim of computer malware Stuxnet.
Some experts suspect the software was specifically created by Israel to target Iran's nuclear programme.
Relations between Tehran and the Vienna-based UN watchdog have deteriorated since Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano took over as IAEA director general just over a year ago.
On December 2, Amano appeared to sidestep accusations that key information on Iran had been leaked to the United States, saying that communicating with member states was part of the agency's day-to-day business.
He insisted that he was impartial, even though a separate WikiLeaks cable revealed that the United States believed Amano sided firmly with Washington on the Iran issue.
The IAEA has been investigating Iran's controversial atomic drive for around eight years, which Western countries believe to be a covert effort to build a nuclear bomb, for eight years now.
Tehran vehemently rejects the weapons programme accusation, insisting that its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.
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