Iran ready to export nuclear services: TV

TEHRAN - Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereidoon Abbasi said the Islamic republic is ready to export services related to nuclear energy to other countries, the local satellite Press TV reported on Sunday.

Abbasi made the remarks on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of an exhibition of the country's nuclear achievements in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province on Saturday.

Iran can now produce heavy water (deuterium oxide), which is very useful for medical applications, Abbasi was quoted as saying.

Abbasi also said that with the recently unveiled third-generation centrifuges, which perform much faster than the previous models and can considerably accelerate the enrichment process, the country can enrich uranium at the level of 20 percent.

Abbasi said Saturday that the subterranean Fordo enrichment facilities will start operating in the near future.

"The Fordo facilities will be launched soon and will be able to produce 20 percent, 3.5 percent and 4 percent enriched uranium," Abbasi said.

In August, Abbasi said that the Islamic republic had started transferring the nuclear enrichment centrifuges of its Natanz nuclear facility to the Fordo atomic site in the central province of Qom.

In June, Abbasi said that Iran was going to install new generation of centrifuges in its uranium enrichment sites and will increase its 20-percent uranium enrichment output by three times.

Local media reported last week that scientists and researchers of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran succeeded in producing and testing the first sample of nuclear fuel rod "successfully".

After all the preliminary tests, including the physical and dimensional tests, were conducted successfully, the nuclear fuel bar was fed into the core of Tehran Research Reactor to further study the performance of the produced sample, said the reports.

Iran said Tehran Research Reactor uses the nuclear fuel bar to produce medicines for cancer treatments.

The West suspects that Iran's uranium enrichment may be meant for producing nuclear weapons. The allegations have been denied by Iran, saying its nuclear program is only for peaceful use.