Iran on 9 April said operations had begun at two uranium mines and a milling plant and that Western opposition would not slow its nuclear work, days after talks with world powers made no breakthrough. Marking its annual National Nuclear Technology Day, Iran also said it would continue to need higher-grade enriched uranium – the part of its atomic activity that most worries the West – to fuel additional research reactors it plans to build. Iran says it uses it to produce medical isotopes. “We have started the design of a 10-megawatt reactor and the process for determining the location is under way,” Iranian atomic energy chiefFereydounAbbasi-Davani said, ISNA news agency reported. Construction may start this year, he added.
Western nations have “tried their utmost to prevent Iran from going nuclear, but Iran has gone nuclear,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech. “They caused restrictions and issued threats, thinking that the Iranian nation cannot achieve nuclear energy … The best way for you is to cooperate with Iran,” he said.