Iran launches new nuclear-related projects

TEHRAN - Iran inaugurated several nuclear-related projects on Tuesday, marking the National Nuclear Technology Day.

In a ceremony broadcast live from Iran's state IRIB TV, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened Shahid Rezaeenejad Yellowcake complex in the city of Ardakan in the central province of Yazd.

Yellowcake is a kind of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is used in the preparation of uranium fuel for nuclear reactors.

On Tuesday, the Islamic republic also launched Saghand uranium complex in Yazd, projected to extract uranium from 350-meter depth of the ground.

The official IRNA news agency reported Monday that the extracted uranium will be processed into Yellowcake in Shahid Rezaeenejad complex.

Besides, Ahmadinejad unveiled an industrial electron accelerator during a ceremony in Tehran on Tuesday, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The accelerator has been designed and developed by Iranian experts and enables the country to make use of a wider range of radiations. The machine is used for various medical and industrial purposes, according to the report.

The Iranian president also unveiled five new radio-medicines which were developed and produced by Iranian experts at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and with the cooperation of the presidential office for science and technology, said Fars.

On Sunday, Iran's Vice-President for Science and Technology Nasrin Soltankhah said, the new radio-medicines are to be used for "diagnosing and curing refractory diseases, cancer in particular".

Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the country has made such achievements despite the enemies' political and sanction pressures.

Also, head of the AEOI, Fereidoon Abbasi, appreciated Iranian experts and engineers for their "huge progress" in the field of civilian nuclear technology, saying that the country has managed to create a stable condition in all parts of its nuclear industry.

"The nuclear industry focused its activities on four pivots of fuel cycle, production advancement technologies, energy production and radiation applications (in the past Iranian year ended on March 20) and achieved desirable results," Abbasi was quoted as saying by Fars.