Iran formally responded to a UN draft nuclear fuel deal Thursday, proposing big changes that could sink the plan, including sending its low-enriched uranium abroad in stages instead of all at once, Iranian media reported. Tehran submitted its answer to the head of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA), according to Al Alam state television. The UN atomic watchdog said Thursday it had received an “initial” response from Iran to a UN-brokered plan to supply nuclear fuel to a research reactor in Tehran. The pro-government daily Javan, in an unsourced report, said Iran wanted phased shipments of low-enriched uranium (LEU) for conversion into fuel for a Tehran research reactor, as well as simultaneous imports of higher-enriched fuel for the same plant. The conditions were likely non-starters for Western powers which suspect the Islamic Republic covertly seeks nuclear arms capability. Tehran says its program is only for electricity. Under the draft drawn up by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in talks last week with Iran and three big powers, Tehran would transfer about 75 percent of its known 1.5 tonnes of LEU in one consignment to Russia for further enrichment by the end of this year, then to France for conversion into fuel plates. These would be returned to Tehran to power the US-built reactor that produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment. The US role in the deal would entail upgrading safety and instrumentation at the plant, Iranian officials said. Western powers were likely to rebuff Tehran's proposed amendments because their priority is to reduce the stockpile of Iranian LEU to ward off the danger that Iran might turn it into the highly-enriched uranium needed for an atom bomb. Sending most of the LEU abroad would buy about a year for talks on halting enrichment in Iran in return for incentives to forge a long-term solution to the nuclear dispute. The powers will see Iran's counter-offer involving nuclear fuel imports as problematic because UN sanctions ban trade in nuclear materials, including enriched uranium, with Tehran. Iran views such sanctions as illegal and unjust.
