|
The state TV broadcast live the ceremony in
which Ahmadinejad was briefed about the process
of production and performance as he fed a nuclear
rod into the reactor.
Xinhua news agency reported from Tehran that
the braodcast also showed other "achievements"
in the country's nuclear technology, including
radioactive medicines for the treatment of cancer.
The presidential website said: "Some new
and worthwhile achievements of the country's nuclear
scientists in the field of atomic energy will
be unveiled ... we will display the extraordinary
capability of Iranian young scientists and their
nuclear knowledge to the world."
CNN said a new generation of advanced centrifuges
and an intent to start production of yellowcake,
a material used in enriching uranium, were also
announced.
The first Iran-made nuclear fuel rods were produced
by the country's scientists at the Natanz facility
in central Iran.
The Tehran research centre is used primarily
for medical purposes. It creates radio isotopes
used for cancer treatment, CNN said citing Press
TV.
Photos of assassinated nuclear scientists adorned
the hall at the unveiling ceremony.
Around 850,000 cancer patients in the country
were in dire need of treatment.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and head of
the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Fereydoun
Abbasi were present at the ceremony. Abbasi said
his country had now activated the new generation
of centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear enrichment
site.
The move will, to a great degree, speed up the
country's uranium enrichment activities and is
a strong response to the Western hostilities,
he said.
Ali Bagheri, deputy chief of Iran's national
security council, told RIA Novosti that Tehran
produced the nuclear fuel rods domestically as
"western countries were unwilling to help".
Western nations accuse Iran of secretly working
to build nuclear weapons. Iran vehemently denies
the charges, saying its nuclear programme is confined
to production of peaceful atomic energy.
The Fars news agency said the country launched
"a cascade of domestically-made uranium enrichment
centrifuges" of the latest generation at
a nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, former head of Iran's Atomic
Energy Organisation, had said in 2009 that the
country planned to install a total of 50,000 enrichment
centrifuges by 2014, RIA Novosti reported.
A report by the UN nuclear watchdog found in
November "credible" information that
Tehran has carried out work toward nuclear weapons
-- including tests of possible bomb components.
Iran responded to the International Atomic Energy
Agency report by calling it a fabrication aimed
at bolstering US accusations that Iran was working
towards a bomb.
"We will never ever suspend our enrichment,"
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's permanent envoy to
the IAEA, said in November.
In the initial stages, Iran's nculear programme
was assisted by German and Russian scientists.
(IANS)
|
