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Iran: Fordo uranium enrichment site runs under IAEA watch

Updated: 2012-01-10 15:44
( Xinhua)

TEHRAN - Iran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Asghar Soltanieh said all of the country's nuclear activities, including those at Fordo enrichment site, are under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog, the local satellite Press TV reported on Tuesday.

Since two years ago, the agency is continuously monitoring all the activities in Fordo, Soltanieh told Press TV on Monday.

Soltanieh said that the Islamic Republic needs the 20-percent enriched uranium, to be produced in Fordo, for the production of nuclear fuel plates required at the Tehran Research Reactor for producing radioisotopes for cancer treatment.

Soltanieh said that "every step we have taken so far has been and every step we will take in the future will be under the IAEA framework and surveillance," adding that "now with the 24-hour (surveillance by) cameras and inspections, the enrichment activities in Natanz and Fordo are under the control of the IAEA."

Iran confirmed on Monday that it has begun uranium enrichment at an underground bunker of the Fordo nuclear facility, Soltanieh said at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna.

The Fordo nuclear plant has been built near the Iranian central Shi'ite holy city of Qom, which was used for producing up to 20 percent enriched uranium.

The start of the nuke work at the Fordo site has increased international fear as the West suspects that Iran's uranium enrichment may be meant for moving closer to the ability to make nuclear weapons. But Iran insists that its nuclear program is only for the purpose of peaceful use.

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