Iran to receive uranium from Russia

Iran will receive the final batch of a 149-tonne shipment of uranium from Russia tomorrow according to Iranian news agency Fars News.

The agency quoted the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, as saying: “The first shipment arrived on January 26 by plane and the last will arrive tomorrow, Tuesday.”

Under the nuclear deal signed with world powers in July 2015, Iran has the right to enrich uranium to a level of 3.5 per cent and sell it as part of efforts to develop its civilian nuclear programme.

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Nuclear weapons require uranium enriched to around 80 per cent.

With the latest shipment, which was authorised by the signatories to the deal, Salehi said Iran has imported 359 tonnes of concentrated uranium, also known as yellow cake, since the nuclear deal came into effect in January 2016.

It’s thought that tomorrow’s shipment will increase Iran’s stockpile of Uranium by 60 per cent from the time of the 2015 nuclear deal.