Iran tells Russia it wants to use domestic nuclear fuel for power plant
Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has told Russia that Iran hopes to replace Russian fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant with domestic uranium.
"We had talks with Rosatom and we hope that as part of our cooperation, based on the plans and contracts we will sign, we will be able to do this and start using Iranian fuel in the reactor in Bushehr", Mohammad Eslami was quoted Saturday by Russia's state-owned Sputnik as saying.
It is not clear what the US reaction would be if Iran starts using domestic fuel.
Iran is not known to have built facilities that would be able to separate plutonium from spent reactor fuel.
Moscow and Tehran have an agreement to send back the spent fuel from the Bushehr plant to Russia. Russia last supplied fuel for the reactor in April 2020.
Rosatom, Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation, carried out most of the construction of the first reactor of Bushehr and has provided the reactor's fuel under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since it began operating in 2011. The company is now constructing a second reactor at the site and has signed a contract to construct a third power unit.
Pointing out that the construction of the second and third power units of the Bushehr power plant is around 23 months behind schedule, Eslami said Iran is expecting Rosatom to speed up the project's implementation and make compensation for its delay.
Eslami was also asked by Sputnik Friday whether Iran will continue to enrich uranium beyond 60 percent if the country does not return to the 2015 nuclear deal and sanctions are not lifted, to which he replied "no."
With electricity generation at around 50,000-56,000 MW in the past few years, rising no more than 2,000 MW a year, Iran has struggled to meet consumption that has been rising and is encouraged by subsidized prices.
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