American-Russian alliance. Iran to expand nuclear ties with Russia, master nuclear fuel cycle

Iran to expand nuclear ties with Russia, master nuclear fuel cycle

09:44 AM (MSK) December 12, 2006

Iran regards Russia as a priority partner in nuclear cooperation and intends to fully master the nuclear fuel cycle and produce nuclear fuel, the country's top officials said Monday. "Our cooperation [with Russia] has broad possibilities, and we are therefore determined to expand peaceful uses of nuclear energy," Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said at the opening of a meeting with Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian Federal Nuclear Power Agency.

Russia's top nuclear official is now in Tehran for talks on the completion of the country's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which is being built by Russia.

Kiriyenko told Aghazadeh that he "had a successful meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki."

"The core element of our work is cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. So our meeting today is of special importance," Kiriyenko said.

Mottaki told Kiriyenko about the Islamic Republic's plans to master the full nuclear fuel cycle. "Mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle and the creation of nuclear fuel is our clear position," Mottaki said.

Iran started up a second experimental chain of 164 centrifuges at its pilot nuclear facility at Natanzin in October, and said it will launch a total of 3,000 centrifuges there by next March. The long-term target is 60,000, enough to advance to industrial-scale enrichment.

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Iran to expand nuclear ties with Russia, master nuclear fuel cycle