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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran inserts nuclear fuel rod in reactor |
| 2012-05-22 |
| IRANIAN scientists have inserted a domestically made fuel rod into the core of a research nuclear reactor in Tehran, Iran's official news agency said The overnight report comes a day before Iran and six world powers meet in Baghdad for negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program. The West says Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. IRNA reported that the fuel rod, which contains pellets of 20 per cent enriched uranium, was inserted into the core after preliminary tests. The advance would be another step in achieving proficiency in the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Iran said in January that it had produced the first nuclear fuel rod, saying it had to find a way to make them because Western sanctions prohibit their purchase from foreign markets. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 The entire rod may not be made of the 20% U-235, they only need a few. Once the reaction gets going, you get enough P-239 created from neutron absorption by U-238 to fuel the reactors. When a "spent" fuel rod is removed, nearly all of the fission taking place is from P-239 and most of the uranium is gone. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2012-05-22 17:58 |
| #1 seems like a waste of Uranium to use 20% enriched U into a fuel rod when you only need about 4% but maybe the nuclear engineers were overruled by a nuclear fatwa |
| Posted by: lord garth 2012-05-22 17:34 |