June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Iran said it now has 17 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium, more than triple the amount that United Nations nuclear inspectors found there in April.
“We can potentially produce 5 kilograms (11 pounds) a month, but we are not in a rush,” Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads Iran’s atomic agency, was cited as saying today by the state-run Iranian Students News Agency. “Iran can enrich to any percentage it wants as its legitimate right.”
By September 2011, Iran will begin operating a plant to convert its 20 percent uranium into fuel to run a Tehran reactor that produces medical isotopes, Salehi said. Under a proposed international deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil on May 17, Iran had said it would swap some of its 3.5 percent-enriched uranium for imported fuel to run the reactor.
The UN Security Council on June 9 approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran’s nuclear development, which the U.S. and its allies say may be intended for a weapons program. Iran says the work is necessary for civilian purposes, such as power generation.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said its inspectors confirmed during an April 7 visit that Iran had produced 5.7 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium, according to a May 31 report. While most nuclear weapons contain 90 percent enriched uranium, concentrations as low as 20 percent can start the atomic fission seen in nuclear weapons.
