Haaretz
Fuel production at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant will begin within three months, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday, citing the country's atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi.
"The production line of enriched uranium dioxide for the provision of fuel to the Bushehr power plant will be fully operational within next three months," Salehi said, according to AFP's translation of the report.
He did not say when Iran could begin using the locally produced fuel.
Construction of the 1,000-megawatt plant was begun in 1975 by German company Siemens, and Russian engineers took over in the 1990s.
Salehi announced last month that Iran was taking control of the civilian nuclear reactor from Russia.
The West suspects Iran is seeking the capability to develop nuclear weapons behind the facade of an atomic energy program. Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful bid to generate electricity and to produce medical isotopes.
Bushehr is not considered a major proliferation risk by Western governments, whose fears are focused on sites where Iran has defied global pressure and Russian-approved UN sanctions by enriching uranium beyond levels needed to fuel power plants.
