Iran Makes Fuel Rods for Reactors

Iran is producing fuel rods for nuclear reactors, state radio reported Thursday in the government's latest attempt to boost a nuclear program that world powers are trying to curb. Power-control rods, or fuel rods, contain low-enriched uranium and are inserted into a nuclear reactor's core to make the reactor run. "After sanctions from the U.S., experts from Iran's atomic energy organization have produced better quality rods than the foreign samples," the radio reported. It said these Iranian-produced rods were already in use in a 5-megawatt reactor built by the United States — before Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution — at the nuclear research center in Tehran. Enriched uranium can be used in the production of nuclear energy or weapons. Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, insists its nuclear program is aimed only at producing electricity. But the United States, France and Britain are pressing for a U.N. Security Council resolution that would demand Iran abandon uranium enrichment or face the threat of unspecified further measures.