IRAN will load domestically made nuclear fuel rods into its Tehran Research Reactor for the first time to keep it running, a senior official told a national news agency yesterday.

    Tehran had announced in January that it had successfully manufactured and tested fuel rods for use in nuclear power plants.

    “The first home-made nuclear fuel roads will be loaded in the Tehran Nuclear Research Reactor in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” Ali Baqeri, deputy head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told student news agency ISNA.

    The Tehran reactor produces radio-isotopes for use in medical treatments and agriculture.

    Iran said it was forced to make its own fuel for the Tehran reactor after failing to agree terms for a deal to obtain it from the West to replenish imported Argentinian stocks expected to run out in the near future. But many analysts doubted Iran would be able to convert its uranium into special reactor fuel.

    Also yesterday, state television reported that Iran will unveil a new generation of its domestically made uranium enrichment centrifuges.

    “The fourth generation of domestically made centrifuges have higher speed and production capacity,” state TV said.

    Iran, the world’s No. 5 crude oil exporter, said its nuclear facilities are part of a peaceful energy program and it would retaliate for any attack on them.

    (SD-Agencies)