Iran builds, tests first nuclear fuel rod

Iran has succeeded in building and testing the country's first
domestically produced nuclear fuel rod, the semi-official Fars news
agency reported Sunday.

The uranium fuel rod was tested successfully and installed in the core
of a research reactor in Tehran, the news agency said, citing Iran's
atomic energy agency website.

Fuel rods are stacks of low-enriched uranium pellets that are bundled
together at the core of a nuclear reactor. Sunday's announcement
appeared aimed at demonstrating Iran's growing sophistication in
developing a home-grown nuclear program, amid fears from the West that
it will use its knowledge to build nuclear weapons.

In January 2008, Fars reported that Iran was able to produce everything
it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program
self-sufficient. But it was not clear that Tehran actually had the
technology to turn enriched uranium into fuel rods.

Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful,
civilian energy purposes only. But it has rebuffed repeated demands to
halt its production of enriched uranium, and a November 8 report by the
U.N. nuclear watchdog found "credible" information that Tehran has
carried out work toward nuclear weapons -- including tests of possible
bomb components.

Iran expects another round of talks with world powers

After the report, the governing council of the International Atomic
Energy Agency adopted a resolution expressing "deep and increasing
concern about the unresolved issues regarding the Iranian nuclear
program."

The Islamic republic responded to the IAEA report by calling it a
fabrication aimed at bolstering U.S. accusations that Iran is working
toward a bomb.

"We will never ever suspend our enrichment," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's permanent envoy to the IAEA, said in November.

In December, the United States as well as several other Western and
Asian nations announced increased sanctions against Iran in an
international effort to tighten the screws around the suspected nuclear
weapons program.

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