Iran is to export most of its enriched uranium to Russia in the coming days as it rushes to implement a nuclear deal and secure relief from international sanctions, Tehran’s nuclear chief was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Drastically reducing its stock of enriched uranium, which can be used in nuclear weapons, was at the heart of the deal Iran reached in July with a group of six world powers.
Under its terms, Iran must cut its stockpile to around 300kg and mothball most of the centrifuges that produce the enriched fuel. It must also remove the core of a heavy water reactor at Arak so it cannot be used to produce plutonium, another potential bomb making source.
Once the UN verifies those steps, international sanctions will be lifted, giving Iran access to global markets for the first time in years and opening a lifeline for its ailing economy.
“In the next few days, about nine tonnes of Iran’s enriched uranium will be exported to Russia,” Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. That is roughly the amount that Iran must export to bring its stock down to the required level.
Salehi said the enriched uranium would be taken out of Iran on board a Russian ship. Iran has already received a shipment of yellowcake — an unenriched uranium compound — from Russia in exchange for the stockpile.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s government is aiming to get sanctions lifted by the end of next month, to boost pro-government candidates in Feb. 26 elections to parliament and the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that chooses Iran’s Supreme Leader.
The country is set to reap an economic windfall once sanctions are lifted. The government has pledged to quickly boost oil production, and foreign companies are jockeying to enter the market of some 80 million people.
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