Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL, a subsidiary of state corporation Rosatom, does not currently consider the possibility to resume work on stable which means nonradioactive isotope production at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, according to TVEL's statement, obtained by Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2019) Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL, a subsidiary of state corporation Rosatom, does not currently consider the possibility to resume work on stable which means nonradioactive isotope production at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, according to TVEL's statement, obtained by Sputnik.
TVEL announced on December 5 that it had suspended its project on re-purposing centrifuges at the Fordow plant following Iran's move to start enriching uranium there as part of the fourth phase of reducing its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
"As a result of the Iranian side's unilateral decision to inject uranium hexafluoride into centrifuges at Fordow, all work on launching stable isotope production there has been suspended. The possibility to resume these operations is not considered currently, due to technological reasons," TVEL said in a statement.
TVEL used to work on repurposing two Fordow centrifuges for production of stable isotopes of tellurium and xenon for medical purposes since 2017. However, after Iran started enriching uranium at Fordow, stable isotope production became technically impossible, since it cannot be conducted at the same location.
The Iranian Embassy in Moscow said on December 6 that Rosatom intended to resume the work on stable isotope production after technical problems were eliminated.
