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Summary
Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi says the country will not accept any fuel bank proposal which would require Tehran to halt uranium enrichment. We do not have any opposition to a fuel bank within the framework the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has established if provision of reliable and stable fuel for nuclear power plants is guaranteed, IRNA quoted head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran as saying. But not if they use political excuses to not provide fuel, Salehi added. Salehi said Moscow's fuel ban proposal was based on the condition that the bank be established in Russia and last week the Russians said they had made preparations for it. Earlier this week, Russia announced that it had created the first international fuel bank in Angarsk, and the first batch of low-enriched uranium would be ready by the end of 2010. Russia has pledged to grant any IAEA member country that honors its non-proliferation commitments access to the reserves. This time the US and the agency have proposed a fuel bank, but its conditions are for countries which do not have the capability to produce [fuel] and given the Islamic Republic's capability to produce [fuel], this proposal is unacceptable for us, Salehi explained. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors voted Friday to establish an international fuel bank that nations can turn to in order to provide fuel for their reactors instead of producing it domestically. The objective of the bank is to reduce the risks of weapons proliferation by providing an alternative to the production of nuclear fuel. Countries which have enrichment technology would donate enriched fuel to a bank, from which states not possessing enrichment technology would obtain fuel for their power reactors. However, certain developing countries oppose the move, arguing that it may restrict their progress in nuclear technology and violate their rights in the nuclear fuel cycle. Earlier on Sunday, Salehi announced that the Islamic Republic has become self-sufficient in yellow-cake uranium. The first consignment of yellow cake was shipped from Gachin mine in Bandar Abbas to Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) under the surveillance of the IAEA.
