TEHRAN: Iran said on Sunday it has produced a first batch of uranium yellowcake, the raw material for enrichment, insisting the new step "strengthens" its position in upcoming nuclear talks with world powers.
Atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said that having previously been obliged to import yellowcake from abroad, Iran was now "self-sufficient" in the entire nuclear fuel cycle.
"The West had counted on the possibility of us being in trouble over raw material but today we had the first batch of yellowcake from Gachin mine sent to Isfahan (conversion) facility," Salehi said on state television.
Conversion is the process by which yellowcake is turned into uranium hexafluoride for enrichment.
"We cannot cover the overall need of the Isfahan facility but we will produce a significant part of it" from the Gachin mine near the Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas, Salehi said.
"Iran has become self-sufficient in the entire fuel cycle, starting from (uranium) exploration, mining and then turning it into yellowcake and converting it to UF6 and then turning it into fuel plates or pellets," he said.
He said Iran would formally notify the International Atomic Energy Agency of its yellowcake production but declined to disclose the amount of the first domestically produced batch.
Iran’s announcement comes it prepares to hold a new round of talks with world powers on its controversial nuclear program in Geneva on Monday.
Salehi said it meant Iran would "go to the negotiations with strength and power."
Uranium enrichment lies at the heart of Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities as the process can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or in highly extended form the fissile core of an atom bomb.
Iran denies seeking a weapons capability but has pressed on with uranium enrichment in defiance of repeated UN Security Council ultimatums.
A succession of UN sanctions imposed since 2006 prevent Iran from acquiring technology, equipment and raw material for its nuclear program.
Iran insists it has a right to enrichment to make fuel as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has vowed to continue.
"No matter how much effort they put into their sanctions in creating all sorts of hindrance… our nuclear activities will proceed," Salehi said.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, is to conduct the talks with Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili on behalf of the five UN Security Council permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly insisted that enrichment is "non-negotiable" while calling on Western governments to "stop being hostile."
Iran has also accused Western powers and Israel — the sole if undeclared nuclear power in the Middle East — of being behind the recent assassination of a top nuclear scientist and of seeking to sabotage its nuclear program.
It took Iran and the six powers a month to agree on a date and venue for the talks, but the two sides have yet to agree on an agenda.
The powers want the talks to focus on Iran’s enrichment program, but Tehran wants a wider discussion including regional security issues and Israel’s suspected nuclear arsenal.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary urged Iran to come to Geneva "in good faith and prepared to engage constructively" on its nuclear program.
