Andhra uranium mine set to fuel nuclear power output to 7-year high

At a time when coal and gas shortages have crippled operations at nearly everyone of India’s thermal stations, a boost in nuclear fuel is set to take atomic power generation to a seven-year record next fiscal. With supplies from a new uranium mine and dispensation facility at Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh set to commence later this year, the capacity factor of the 20 operational nuclear reactors, adding together up to an installed capacity of 4,780 MWe, is now projected to top 80 per cent in 2012-13, according to latest estimates drawn by the Department of Atomic Energy. Uranium imports from Russia, France and Kazakhstan have previously helped half the nuclear fleet achieve near-optimal operations.

In 2006-07, the capacity factor was 64 per cent, but plummet to 50 per cent in 2008-09. (The ability factor is the ratio of the actual output to its output if operated at full potential.) It bounced back to 61 per cent in 2009-10 and increased further to 71 per cent in 2010-11. In the first nine months of this economic it has reached 78 per cent.

This marks a whole turnaround from the uranium shortage that stymied nuclear power generation for much of the second half of the last decade. Fuel imports from the three countries that supply uranium to India are now additional than what is required by the ten reactors under international safeguards. “Currently, ten reactors are fuelled by indigenous fuel, which is not accessible in the required quantity. So these are organism operated at lower power levels,” said an official.

Chinese power group eyes uranium companies

A Chinese state-owned power company has set its sights on two uranium companies, making a £632m offer for London-listed Kalahari Minerals that if completed would trigger an offer for Australia-listed Extract Resources.China Guangdong Nuclear Power has bid 243.55p for Kalahari, an investor in a Namibian uranium project, representing a 16 per cent premium to the Aim-quoted group’s share price over the past six months.

Kalahari’s board recommended the latest offer from the Chinese group, which is trying to secure supplies of nuclear fuel as the country embarks on the world’s biggest reactor-building programme.Earlier this year, CGNPC tried to buy Kalahari but its 290p offer was disrupted by falling uranium markets after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan as well as an adverse ruling from the UK’s takeover panel.

Kalahari is an investment company whose sole asset is a 43 per cent stake in Extract, which is developing the Husab uranium project in Namibia.Australian securities laws require bidders to extend their offer to all shareholders if they buy a stake of 20 per cent or more in an Australian company.

Thorium pushed as uranium alternative

A SCIENTIFIC movement to promote thorium as a nuclear fuel, due to its plenty and improved safety, is developing around the world and Australia could lead the way the Sydney scientist Reza Hashemi-Nezhad has argue for additional than a decade for the benefits of thorium when used in an accelerator-driven nuclear reactor that operate at subcritical conditions.'

'You cannot have an accident like to Chernobyl,'' Dr Hashemi-Nezhad, the director of the Institute of Nuclear Science at the University of Sydney, said, ''It does not make weapon-grade materials and the nuclear waste is much less toxic than beginning a standard reactor.''

With the world's major reserves of the radioactive mineral, Australia could be a leader in increasing and adopting the technology,''It is completely proven and feasible,'' Dr Hashemi-Nezhad said, ''the only thing necessary here is government acceptance.''

Iran threatens to expand uranium enrichment if nuclear swap deal falls through

Iran threatened Tuesday that if additional countries do not agree on a swap deal work out with France and Brazil last year, it would enlarge its own production of nuclear fuel the swap would see Iran's supply of 20 percent, or low-enriched, uranium exchange for nuclear fuel rods from France the medium enriched rods are to be used to fuel a Tehran medical reactor.

"We will not only continue to do the enrichment by ourselves but also build a factory for developed even the fuel rods by ourselves," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Mehmanparast additional that Iran could halt its 20 percent enrichment if the swap was approved.

"As the 20 percent enrichment process is not even economical for us, we would be willing to halt this process and get the essential fuel for the Tehran reactor from abroad," the spokesman said however, if a swap is not made, Iran would have no choice but to carry on producing fuel for the Tehran reactor, which Iran has said is used solely for medical purposes, such as treat cancer patients.

Uranium up on strong nuclear case

Uranium spot prices rose 2.4 percent last week as buyers look beyond the impact of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Ux Consulting Co said Uranium-oxide focus for immediate delivery sold for $54 a pound (0.45 kg) in the seven days ended Monday, compare with $52.75 the previous week, Ux said in an emailed report Tuesday that is based on the mainly competitive offer tracked by the U.S. company.

"The industry believes that the holder for nuclear energy is still strong, given that lots of countries are still moving forward with their nuclear energy plans," Ux said.

The spot price for the nuclear fuel has dropped 19 percent since the week previous to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami injured Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima No 1 power station, triggering the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 and prompting a few nations to put their nuclear power plans on hold.

More pain for uranium sector as price dips

Already battered by headwinds, as well as strong opposition from environmentalists, WA's fledgling uranium sector is set for additional grief amid expectation the nuclear fuel's low price will fall another 6 per cent inside the next few months analysts at consultancy Resource Capital Research say the forecast crash in uranium oxide spot price over the coming three to six months is despite what show to be sound long-term fundamentals for the industry.

However, the continued fallout beginning Japan's nuclear crisis and Germany's subsequent decision to close its 17 reactors by 2022 is probable to add downward pressure on the U{-3}O{-8} spot price, which, at $US48.85 ($46.16) per pound, is rear at levels seen immediately after the March tsunami trigger the Fukushima plant explosion the spot price was $US67.75/lb before the Fukushima crisis.

"The fund-implied price, an indicator of market value expectations looking out three to six months, points to a spot price of $US45.95/lb, reflecting expectations of possible new supply to enter the market and uncertainty over the point of potential Japanese and German utility surplus dispositions," RCR said in its uranium sector review the uranium sector have also been weighed down by broader macro-economic factors, such as concern concerning the state of the US and European economies.

Iran's Nuclear Experiments Raise Alarm at U.N. Agency

The United Nations' nuclear agency says it is "increasingly concerned" so as to Iran has conducted experimental work to enlarge nuclear weapons, in particular on warheads to deliver nuclear payloads in a statement issued Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Iran has begun deploy so-called second-generation centrifuges at its largest uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz, which could allow to the country to produce nuclear fuel at three times its current rate.

Tehran has concurrently begun installing centrifuge machines at an underground site close to the holy city of Qom, according to the U.N. agency, potentially minimizing the ability of the U.S. or Israel to launch military strikes beside Iran's nuclear facilities.

U.S. officials said the report reflects heightened international anxiety that Iran is developing the technologies to build nuclear weapons; a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied, Washington also said Iran's actions point to a require for additional international financial pressure on Tehran's government to power it to comply with U.N. resolutions requiring it to suspend all uranium-enrichment activities.

Hathor tout Roughrider uranium deposit

The Roughrider uranium deposit is currently the third richest in the Athabasca Basin according to a new resource approximation, project owner Hathor Exploration Ltd. says. The East Zone of the deposit, situated within the Midwest Northeast project, has been estimated to contain 30 million pounds of uranium grading 11.58 per cent U3O8, Hathor declare Tuesday. This nearly doubles the size of Roughrider to 54 million pounds, manufacture it one of the richest deposits in northern Saskatchewan. Hathor says only Cameco Corporation and Areva Resources Canada Inc.'s McArthur River and Cigar Lake mines have larger deposit.

"Canada and Saskatchewan should be arrogant of this district," company president and CEO Michael Gunning said about the Athabasca Basin. With a worldwide average grade of 0.5 per cent U3O8 per uranium deposit, Hathor said Roughrider's grade is obviously above and beyond most of the world's uranium deposits. The size and the grade of the site help its chances of being brought into manufacture. "Grade is king," Gunning said. "Grade is what builds gainful mines." In April, Hathor expected the first uranium mineral lease in Saskatchewan since 1985 for its project. The improve from a mineral claim to a mineral lease gives the company the exclusive right to explore for and finally mine the area.

The leasehold for the 543-hectare site is renewable each 10 years. Hathor exhausted between $4 million and $5 million this past winter at Roughrider, where it tested the Roughrider East Zone. "The discovery is rare, it's above average rank and it really has those attributes that look like it could be a viable project for northern Saskatchewan and that, for me, is a win-win for everyone," Gunning said of the plan in a February interview. Despite the resource approximation from the East Zone, a production decision remains years away. Saskatchewan makes roughly 20 per cent of the world's uranium, which is used in nuclear fuel.

Japanese TEPCO to stick with original nuke shutdown plan, despite troubles

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Tuesday that despite the scratch at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant being far broader than previously thought at three of the complex's faulty reactors, it would adhere to its previous roadmap of six-to-nine-month to bring the nuclear disaster to an end. "As for the timetable of achieve the objectives, there are different kinds of uncertain elements and risks, but there is no change in the following target announce previously," TEPCO officials said in a press briefing on Tuesday, in and renew to its original plan. TEPCO last week voided original plans to flood the No. 1 containment chamber, which surrounds the reactor vessel, to avoid the fuel from overheating in a process that would have been recognized as water entombment.

The move came after the usefulness discovered that due to surprising low levels of water, nuclear fuel rods had been fully out in a reactor at the crippled No. 1 Fukushima nuclear power plan and melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel. TEPCO said a huge amount of nuclear fuel is likely to have melted after being fully exposed and that nearly all of the nuclear fuel at the Nos. 1-3 units appear to have melt in the early stage of the nuclear crisis after the earthquake and tsunami disrupt the cooling systems. Prior to this finding, TEPCO said in mid-April that it hoped to steady the plant within six to nine months, but the Asia's biggest utility firm confirmed Tuesday the time line would not change.

Also on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government would allow an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into a series of accidents that have happened at the plant and sparked domestic and international controversy. "We have strived to ensure the utmost transparency for the international society over the accidents," Edano told a news conference. "Accepting the investigative team is part of this attempt. Sharing our country's experience with others will be helpful," the top government spokesperson said.

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant Starts Operation

FNA dispatches from Bushehr said that Iranian and Russian expert completed loading fuel into the heart of the power plant and that nuclear fuel use has started in the power plant, meaning that it is now running activity. The plant will continue working for two weeks before it produce electricity. The power plant will connect the national grid by the next two months. Iran signed a deal with Russia in 1995, according to which the plant was initially scheduled for completion in 1999. However, the project was frequently delayed by the Russian side due to the intense pressure exerted on Moscow by the United States and its western allies. Russia finally completed building of the plant last summer.

On October 26, Iran started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the original phase of launching the nuclear reactor. The facilities function under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Later in March, Iran unloaded fuel from the heart of the Bushehr reactor, and washed and triple-check the fuel rods in a move to further increase the safety of the plant. US officials announce the similar month that the disruption was due to a US spyware attack against Iran's nuclear facilities through malicious software recognized as Stuxnet, but Iranian officials dismissed the claim.

Iran then started reloading fuel into the core of the reactor, and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi publicize that the reactor would enter sensitive phases of operation from May 5 to 10. The remarks by Salehi came a day after Russia's Atomstroiexport Company, which oversaw the plant's structure, said in a statement that the refueling operation in progress after the plant had been rechecked. "The loading of fuel rod assemblies into the core in progress at the Bushehr nuclear power plant on April 8," the statement added.

Uranium Energy Says Quake response Means World Shortfall

Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC), a U.S. miner and processor of the nuclear fuel, said global supply will fall short as exploration investment is shortened following the Japanese nuclear crisis. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA), which track uranium-mining companies, has fallen 21 percent since March 10, the day before Japan’s strongest earthquake on proof and a tsunami triggered explosions and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. Australian uranium miner Mantra Resources Ltd. last month decided to a 12 percent cut in the capture offer from Russia’s state-owned Rosatom Corp. because of the crisis.

Annual uranium use surpass production by 50 million pounds following the damage done to Fukushima, said Amir Adnani, chief executive officer of Corpus Cristi, Texas-based Uranium Energy. “Because of Fukushima, because of the reaction, the knee- jerk reaction, the expansion is not going to occur at an adequate pace to fill the current deficit and meet growing demand,” Adnani said in an April 13 phone interview from London. Uranium Energy rose 6 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $4.09 as of 4:15 p.m. in American Stock Exchange trade. The shares have drooping 13 percent since the earthquake.

Still, Adnani said he doesn’t expect a negative impact on Uranium Energy because its Palangana mine in Texas started production in late November. “Everything we had to do to start production was finished before Fukushima and what seems currently to be a tougher environment,” he said. The price of U3O8, the deal form of uranium, declined 14 percent since the earthquake to $57.50 a pound, according to data from MF Global Holdings Ltd. Nuclear power offer for about 20 percent of U.S. electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

China Boasts get through in Nuclear Technology

Chinese scientists have complete a breakthrough in spent fuel reprocessing technology that could potentially resolve China's uranium provide difficulty, state television reported on Monday. The technology, developed and experienced at the No.404 Factory of China National Nuclear Corp in the Gobi wilderness in remote Gansu province, allow the re use of irradiated fuel and is capable to boost the usage rate of uranium materials at nuclear plants by 60 folds. "With the fresh technology, China's existing detect uranium resources can be use for 3,000 years," Chinese Central Television report.

China, as well as France, the United Kingdom and Russia, actively supports reprocessing as a means for the management of extremely radioactive spent fuel and as a basis of fissile cloth for future nuclear fuel deliver. But independent scientists argue that commercial request of nuclear fuel reprocessing has always been hindered by cost, technology, propagation risk and safety challenges. China has 171,400 tons of established uranium resources spread mainly in eight province Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Liaoning and Yunnan.

China is planning a huge push into nuclear power in an effort to wean itself off coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. It now has 12 working reactors with 10.15 gigawatt of total generate ability. China has set an official aim of 40 gigawatts (GW) of install nuclear make capacity by 2020, but the government indicate it could twice the goal to about 80 GW as faster growth was one of the more feasible solutions for achieving emissions decrease goals. As such, China will require to source more than 60 percent of the uranium wanted for its nuclear power plants from overseas by 2020, even if the country move onward with a diffident nuclear expansion plan, Chinese researchers say.

Uranium prices to increase in 2011

Uranium has become one of the mainly sought after metals in 2010 and it might continue to be so in the upcoming year also. According to market analyst, require from India and China will keep uranium prices up in 2011 also. Both these nations have chalked out big plans to place up latest nuclear power plants to meet their power demands. This will help uranium prices to go up in the upcoming year also. Uranium prices have rise about 20 percent since October because of a restricted supply of the nuclear fuel being available to utilities, manufacturer and traders on the spot market.

Uranium oxide concentrate for instant release reached $62.50 a pound this week. Meanwhile, the Uranium Stocks Index is high on Thursday, up 1.6%, adding to a six month presentation that has seen the Index double, and there could be more benefit to come for uranium stocks in 2011. Supply and demand matter have helped drive spot uranium prices as tall as $62.50 in recent weeks, but prices could rush more next year. China’s entry into the uranium market is the means to drive prices top. The country just announced a deal with Cameco (CCJ), the major US-listed uranium miner by market value.

Uranium investor Enriched by China

A small event in a nuclear reactor the collision of a neutron with an atom of nuclear fuel triggers enormous energy through a powerful chain response. Something related happened in the uranium markets previous month. The small event was in China, where an official for the country's nuclear power agency give a speech in which he predictable China could build 112 gigawatts of nuclear ability by 2020. Though he stressed that 80 gigawatts was the more likely aim, that cautionary nuance was lost in conversion, and the price of uranium shot up to $65 a pound within a little days, after languishing near $40 a pound since the start of the global recession.

"That actually got people's juices going," says Edward Sterck, an analyst with BMO assets Markets. "It was a 'maybe' scenario, and when it got statement in the English press, they only reported that top line shape." To put the official's high estimate in perspective, 112 gigawatts is about a third of the world's current nuclear capacity, and 60% over the "high" estimate for China's growth forecast by the London-based World Nuclear Association last year. China is at present building 26 new reactors, more than twice as many as the nearest contender, Russia.

Although the Chinese official afterward played down the top line figure, uranium prices and the stocks of uranium producers have reserved their gains. This is mainly because people were previously seeing signs in the market that China is arrange for a bigger nuclear power growth than previously estimated. A week before the speech, China's biggest nuclear power utility signed a decade long conformity to purchase uranium from Areva SA, France's state own nuclear power company.

Nuclear privileges are non-negotiable: Ahmadinejad

“Our nuclear rights, including the maintenance of uranium enrichment, the production of 20 percent enriched uranium, and the creation of nuclear power plants, are not negotiable,” Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday in an assembly with a number of university students in Arak, the capital of Markazi Province. It is clear that basic human rights like nuclear rights are not negotiable because “this is similar to our country’s independence, and no country negotiates on its independence with other countries,” he affirmed.

“Apparently, they have said that they need to cooperate,” he said, adding, “Cooperation in regions like a nuclear fuel exchange and global economic, political, and security issue is possible.” Iran and the 5+1 collections wrap up their two-day talks in Geneva on Tuesday. According to Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili, who symbolize Iran at the talks, the 5+1 group agreed that the next rounds of talks, which will be held in Istanbul in late January, will center on “common ground for cooperation.”

The next round of negotiations will focus on finding “ordinary ground for cooperation,” but Iran will not talk on its inalienable rights, including uranium enrichment, Jalili said after the end of the talks. Ahmadinejad stated that the most excellent approach for cooperation would be to lift the international sanctions on Iran and emphasize that the obligation of sanctions cannot force Iran to give in to the major powers’ demands. “You should rescind the authorize because that would be the best approach for cooperation,” he said.

Iran denies difficulty with uranium enrichment

Iran Tuesday denied claims that its responsive uranium enrichment work has been hit by technical problems and stressed that its nuclear programme has not been debilitated by the Stuxnet computer worm. Also rejecting allegations by Western powers that Iran lacks the know-how to create nuclear fuel plates, atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi was obstinate the Islamic republic would be producing fuel for a research reactor by September 2011. Salehi "denied Western media information that enrichment has stopped in Iran," the official news agency IRNA reported. "Iran will never pay notice to lies in Western media on its progressive path in the nuclear issue," he told IRNA.

Salehi appeared to be respond to comments by Olli Heinonen, former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who said on Monday that technical troubles were slowing down Iran's uranium enrichment. Heinonen, addressing an occasion in Washington organised by the Arms Control Association, said the problems stemmed probably from a flawed design for centrifuges. The centrifuges are operating at only 60 percent of ability and Iran for some reason has removed hundreds of the machines, he said. "This point out there is a problem."

Iran in February started sanitization uranium to 20 percent purity after a deadlock in a nuclear fuel swap deal drafted by the UN atomic watchdog and aimed at given that fuel for the Tehran medical research reactor. Salehi said on Tuesday the enrichment process was enduring apace. "By the month of Shahrivar next year (September 2011), we will make fuel for the reactor," he was quoted as saying by IRNA. Salehi also frequent previous denials by Iranian officials that an extraordinary computer worm, Stuxnet, had in any way debilitated Iran's nuclear programme. "This virus bumped into a dead-end, a wall, and the enemies could not accomplish the goals they had hope for in the past one and a half years," he said.

Iran envoy dismisses tougher conditions for atom fuel swap

Western diplomats say economic sanction are beginning to have an force on Iran, and it may be possible to revitalize the fuel exchange plan if it also accepts broader talks they hope will lead to Tehran approving to curb its enrichment drive. They have prepared clear any new deal must be updated to take into account Iran's enlarged holdings of low enriched uranium (LEU) material which can be used to build bombs if refined much further, and its work to enrich to top levels since February. "I'm afraid there is no sense for these kind of statements," Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Reuters when asked about a U.S. media statement that Iran would be required to part with some two metric tons of its uranium stockpile under a correct proposal.

Iran has said it is prepared to meet with the powers involved in efforts to defuse the argument over its nuclear program the United States, Germany, France, China, Britain and Russia afterward this month at a time and place still to be determined. It would be the first such gathering in more than a year and also the first since the United Nations, the United States and the European Union forced harsher sanctions on Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, earlier this year. But the Islamic Republic is performance no sign of backing down over uranium enrichment work it says is designed to produce electricity but the West suspects has military aims.

The major powers want Iran to suspend all such actions. Iran has every time rejected this demand, saying it is its national right to develop nuclear energy. Last week, the U.S. State Department said Washington and its European allies were ready a new offer to Iran on the fuel exchange, seen as a potential confidence building step. The New York Times said it would need Iran to send about 2,000 kg of LEU out of the country. That would represent a more than two thirds' increase from the amount necessary under a tentative deal a year ago that later collapsed. Iran would also need to stop manufacture of nuclear fuel it is enriching to 20 percent, a key step toward bomb-grade levels, and agree to consult on the future of its nuclear program, the Times said.

Uranium Demand to generate Upside Pressure on Prices

A report issued final week by Morgan Stanley forecasts that uranium prices will average $52.25 a pound next year, an enlarge of 19 percent higher than this year. The expectation for analyst Peter Richardson and Joel Crane is that as new provide becomes available the demand for nuclear fuel will outpace manufacture capacity. Although it is certainly not the first predict for strengthening uranium prices, the message may send prices higher if utilities act sooner to try to build inventories before the impending inflationary force mounts. A nearly balanced uranium market makes prices “vulnerable to deliver shocks and/or new build announcements,” Richardson and Crane wrote.

The average spot price this year is 6 percent below the previous year and almost 30 percent lesser than the average in 2008, according to the report. “The steady, two year erosion in uranium prices has translate into difficult mining breakeven points, mostly for new uranium projects,” the analysts said. As of October 1, the countries with the leading number of planned and proposed new nuclear reactors are: China 159; India 60; Russia 44; USA 31; Ukraine 22; and South Africa 15. The report cites that demand from residential economies is also set to rise on “concerns over carbon emission expenses and energy supply security.”

The new plants will need 32,900 tonnes of nuclear fuel, almost half of the demand from this year’s 443 profitable reactors. Most of the demand growth will have to be meet by mines as secondary supplies from recycled Russian warheads may finish with the end of an international agreement in 2013. The mark price of uranium jumped 5.6 percent this week, growing $2.75 to $52.00 per pound as reported on Monday by UxC trade consultants. It has been a very busy month for Australian uranium mining welfare in Africa, with Paladin Energy taking a holding interest in NGM Resources. The market has reacted optimistically the news sending the share prices for Paladin 20 percent superior for the month of October to the current range of $4.39.

Uranium prices to increase 19% in 2011

Uranium prices will average US$52.25/lb next year, on behalf of an advance of 19% compared with 2010, according to a new report by Morgan Stanley. The mid to longer term price rises can be credited to an increasingly tightening demand-supply balance. Spot prices for uranium oxide this year through mid October average US$43.78/lb and for 2012, the company’s analyst Peter Richardson and Joel Crane predicted it could rise to as a lot as US$60. This year’s average is 6% below last year’s level and approximately 30% lower than the 2008 average. “The steady, two-year erosion in uranium prices has translate into difficult mining breakeven points, particularly for latest uranium projects,” the analysts said.

The fall in prices has made the world ever more dependent on Kazakh output, which reached 14.02Mt last year, efficiently knocking Canada of the top spot, according to the World Nuclear Association. Moreover, with new nuclear reactor capacity coming online in the stage up to 215, demand for fuel is expected to rise by 24%. And growth potential lies ahead for the longer-term as well as over the next decade, an extra 147 nuclear plants are planned to come online, according to Morgan Stanley. Their fuel necessity is estimated to be around 32,900t of nuclear fuel. It is envisage that most of this order will have to be met by mines as secondary supplies from recycled Russian warheads may cease as an international conformity expires in 2013.

Iran Could perimeter Uranium Enrichment, Ahmadinejad Says

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday said his country could stop enriching uranium to 20 percent if it received fuel for a medical isotope making reactor in Tehran, the Associated Press reported. Iran in February began cleansing low-enriched uranium from its stockpile to 20 percent. Although the move was ostensibly intended to make isotopes for the medical research reactor, the United States and other Western powers have feared the process could help Iran produce nuclear weapon substance, which has an enrichment level around 90 percent. Tehran has denied harboring any military ambition for its nuclear program.

"We were not attracted to carry out 20 percent enrichment. They politicized the matter. We were compulsory to do it to support the patients," Ahmadinejad told AP. "Whenever they provide us the fuel and we are in possession of it, we can examine a halt" in production of higher-enriched material, Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying. Ahmadinejad blasted countries for imposing economic penalty on Iran over its nuclear program while offering incentive for atomic cooperation, AP reported. The U.N. Security Council in June adopted its fourth sanctions declaration aimed at pressuring the Middle Eastern nation to abandon its disputed nuclear efforts.

"The era of following a policy of incentive and stick is over. Even such words are insulting to nations. It's only good for cowboys and those of retard people. Definitely it has no result," the Iranian leader said. "They issued resolutions as talks were under way. Still, we are ready for talks." An Iranian delegate is likely to meet next month with representatives of the five stable Security Council member nations and Germany, Ahmadinejad said. European Union foreign plan chief Catherine Ashton unsuccessfully attempt this year to schedule new talks with Iran, AFP quoted U.S. National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough as saying.