TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Monday that Iran will start producing plate type nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor in five months. 

He also said that Iran has produced nearly 70 kilograms of uranium enriched to the purity level of 20 percent.      

Iran should convert 20 percent enriched uranium into fuel plates to power the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment. 

Iran has constructed an advanced plant at the Isfahan nuclear facility for manufacturing nuclear fuel plates. With the construction of the plant, Iran is now among the few countries that can manufacture both nuclear fuel rods and plates.

In mid-April, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Director Fereydoun Abbasi announced that the installation of the machinery needed for producing nuclear fuel plates had started.  

The nuclear plant for converting enriched nuclear fuel into fuel rods was inaugurated in Isfahan in early spring 2009.   

Iranian officials had previously said that the technology for producing nuclear fuel plates does not differ greatly from the technology for producing nuclear fuel rods.