ISFAHAN, Feb 3: Iran opened the doors to its uranium conversion plant on Saturday in a bid to show its good intentions amid mounting international pressure for halting its controversial nuclear programme.
A delegation of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Group of 77 representatives arrived at the facility in the central city of Isfahan together with foreign and Iranian journalists for a guided tour.
The delegation included ambassadors to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of Cuba, Malaysia and Egypt -- representing the NAM -- and Sudan and Bolivia from the Group of 77 as well as the Algerian envoy.
They have the opportunity to see for themselves what is going on in the peaceful nuclear activities of Iran and have first-hand experience, said Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh.
This is the maximum transparency you can imagine that a country can have, and shows the government of Iran pays due attention to public opinion of the international community.
Mr Soltanieh, who guided the diplomats and journalists around the site, showed the IAEA's monitoring cameras installed in the heart of the plant where uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the feed gas for uranium enrichment is produced.
Everything is recorded for the IAEA. Each gram of input is measured before and after going through the process. Everything is measurable by the agency and we adhere to the guidelines of the agency word for word, he said.
Mr Soltanieh said that Iran had produced 250 tons of UF6 in Isfahan. Raw mined uranium, or yellowcake, is transferred to the conversion facility on the edge of Isfahan where it is transformed into uranium tetrafluoride and then into UF6.
The UF6 is then enriched through cascades of centrifuges to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. In extended form, the same process can produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb, the source of US-led concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.—AFP
