Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Iran has opened a uranium factory meant to produce fuel for nuclear reactors.

The Iranian Atomic Energy Agency said it oversaw the launch of the uranium dioxide factory in Isfahan.

The agency said the facility would supply five percent enriched uranium fuel for the nuclear reactor at Bushehr.

“Under the agreement with the P5+1 which came into effect in January, we are to transform a part of the enriched uranium to less than five percent oxide,” agency director Ali Salehi, referring to the interim nuclear deal reached in November 2013, said.

Salehi said the new Isfahan facility would convert uranium hexafluoride into uranium dioxide. Uranium hexafluoride has been used to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium.

At the same time, Iran again rebuffed demands by the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit the military site at Parchin. Defense Minister Hussein Dehqan said the Teheran regime determined that IAEA had no need to inspect Parchin, believed to have hosted nuclear warhead experiments. On Aug. 25, an agency deadline for Iranian compliance expired.

“Besides, they have accepted that nothing took place in Parchin,” Dehqan said on Aug. 23.

  again denies access to Parchin nuclear site, Ali Salehi, Bushehr, hexafluoride, Hussein Dehqan, Iran opens another uranium factory