Iran to Hold Talks with IAEA Late Oct, Launch UO2 Production Line

Local Editor

Iran will hold talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] in the Austrian capital of Vienna late October.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday that the talks are scheduled to be held on October 28-29.

Araqchi added that Iran's Ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi will head the Iranian delegation and IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Safeguards Herman Nackaerts will lead the IAEA team.

He further stated that expert-level talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany would be held following the Iran-IAEA talks.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister said Hamid Ba'eedinejad, the director general of political and legal affairs in Iran's Foreign Ministry, will head the Iranian delegation at the expert-level talks with the six countries. The Iranian team will include at least five nuclear, economic, legal and technical experts.

For her part, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Marziyeh Afkham, said Tuesday that "talks with the Group 5+1 take place in full and constant coordination with top Iranian authorities."
"The coordination is being made through President Hassan Rowhani and the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei," Afkham told reporters at her weekly press conference.

She added that the Supreme National Security Council [SNSC] is in charge of policy-making based on coordination between Supreme Leader and the President.

For his part, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran [AEOI] revealed that the production line of natural and enriched UO2 [uranium dioxide] will be launched in full gear within the next few months.

Ali Akbar Salehi made the announcement during a tour of the Uranium Conversion Facility [UCF] of Isfahan on Tuesday.
The AEOI chief said there was satisfactory progress toward UO2 production at the facility. Salehi expressed gratitude for the hard work by Iranian nuclear industry personnel.

UO2, also known as urania, is a radioactive, crystalline powder that naturally occurs in the mineral uraninite, used in nuclear fuel rods in nuclear reactors.
The development comes a month after Salehi announced the takeover of Iran's Russian-built Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant [NPP] by Iranian technicians.

"During the temporary handover, Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant must operate for two years, or 7,000 hours," said the AEOI chief on September 22, adding that the plant will be under Russian warranty during the period.

Source: News agencies, Edited by website team