TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran urged UN nuclear watchdog to avoid posting “unnecessary” details on Tehran’s nuclear program, state television reported on Sunday, a day after Germany, France and Britain said Tehran “has no credible civilian use” for its development of uranium metal.
The report cited a statement from the Iranian nuclear department asking the International Atomic Energy Agency not to publish details about the Iranian nuclear program that could cause confusion.
“The international atomic energy agency is expected to avoid providing unnecessary details and avoid paving the way for misunderstandings” in the international community, according to the statement. It was not elaborated.
On Saturday, Germany, France and Britain pressured Iran to backtrack on its plan to develop uranium metal, calling it “the latest planned violation” of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, which Iran insists it does not want to do.
“Iran has no credible civilian use for uranium metal,” they said in a joint statement. “The production of uranium metals has potentially serious military implications.”
On Thursday, the IAEA said Iran had informed it that it had begun installing equipment for metal uranium production. He said Tehran maintains its research and development plans on uranium metal production as part of its “stated goal of designing an improved type of fuel.”
Iran reacted on Sunday to the European statement saying Iran informed the UN nuclear watchdog nearly two decades ago of its plans for “peaceful and conventional” uranium metal production. He also said he provided updated information to the agency two years ago about his plans to produce advanced silicide fuel.
The statement states that uranium metal is an “intermediate product” in the manufacture of uranium silicide, a fuel used in nuclear reactors that is safer and has more energy capacity than uranium oxide-based fuel. which Iran currently produces.
The three European nations along with the United States, Russia and China signed the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that banned the exploration and production of metallic uranium.
President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the United States from the Iranian nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. After the US increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the limits of the agreement on its nuclear development.
President-elect Joe Biden, who was vice president when the deal was signed during the Obama administration, has said he hopes the United States will return to the deal.