Location: Radiochemistry Section, TNRC, Tehran
Subordinate to: TNRC/AEOI
Size: Laboratory Scale
Primary Function: Isotope production; spent fuel separation

Description:

Iran may have separated gram quantities of plutonium from spent fuel at a laboratory at the TNRC. In 1988, an Iranian nuclear engineer stated that he took part in experiments at the TNRC in which he and his colleagues cold-tested a plutonium extraction laboratory, but did not reprocess any plutonium. Akbar Etemad, former head of the AEOI, also confirmed that experiments were performed on a laboratory scale related to the reprocessing of spent fuel. The TNRC operates several hot cells that were supplied by the United States in 1967. These provide a basic capability for separating plutonium from spent fuel, but do not constitute a dedicated program by themselves. However, there are other facilities at the TNRC such as a radiation measurements laboratory, chemistry laboratory and radioisotope production unit that may contribute to a reprocessing capability.

In the 1990s, the TNRC radiochemistry section conducted some "laboratory scale experiments," presumably at this laboratory, to produce UF4 from depleted UO2 that was imported by Iran in 1997. In mid-2003, the IAEA took samples from the hot cells and lead shielded cells of the laboratory to confirm that pellet irradiation experiments undertaken at the TNRC were solely for purposes of radioisotope production. The results of the samples were not yet available as of August 2003.

Key Sources:
[1] Akbar Etemad, "Iran," A European Non-Proliferation Policy, ed., Harald Mueller (Clarendon Press, 1987), pp. 206-207.
[2] Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 26 August 2003, p. 9.

	Updated January 2006