Iran to bring back enriched uranium from Russia

Iran announced on Saturday that it will bring back a second batch of the 20%-enriched uranium which it sent to Russia in 2015 as part of its commitments under the nuclear deal signed with world powers.

The uranium that is return is to be used in the Tehran Research Reactor, according to a report in the semiofficial Fars news agency.

"When we were inking the nuclear deal, we stopped production of 20% fuel and deposited the excessive fuel in Russia in nearly 10 batches. We received the first batch nearly seven months ago and the second batch is about to be transferred back to Iran. Any of these batches can be used for nearly one year and therefore, we have 20% fuel for Tehran Reactor for at least 7 to 8 years," said a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi.

"If the fuel is sold to us, we do not need to produce it by ourselves," he continued.

"If the nuclear deal remains alive, the other sides should sell us the fuel and if the nuclear deal dies, then we would feel unimpeded to produce the 20% fuel ourselves," Kamalvandi said.

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