Iranians to start using own nuclear fuel plates

Iran is to insert its first domestically produced uranium fuel into its Tehran reactor by mid-February, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in comments published by the IRNA state news agency on Thursday. "Within the next two months the first fuel plate which is produced with the 20 percent enriched uranium will be placed in Tehran's research reactor," Salehi, who previously headed Iran's nuclear organisation, was quoted as saying. His statement was an excerpt from a longer interview to be released "soon," IRNA said.