TEHRAN - Iran has said it is ready for a one-shot nuclear fuel exchange on its own soil, edging closer to the conditions of a plan drawn up by the UN atomic watchdog last year as major powers mulled a new round of sanctions. Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi revealed the new offer in an interview published by hardline daily Jawan on Wednesday, signalling a major change in Tehran's longstanding position on the nuclear fuel plan first drafted last October. Salehi said Iran is ready to deliver 1,200 kilogrammes (2,640 pounds) of low-enriched uranium (LEU) in one go in return for fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor, but the exchange must be inside the country. Salehi, who is also a vice president, said Iran had earlier proposed to deliver its LEU only gradually in batches of 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds). Chrono: Iran's nuclear fuel deal "But this has no technical justification because those who want to produce the (20 percent enriched) fuel say that this amount has no economic justification," Salehi said. "What we are saying now is that we are ready to deliver the total amount of fuel in one go, on condition that the exchange take place inside Iran and simultaneously. "We are ready to deliver 1,200 kilos and to receive 120 kilos (264 pounds) of 20 per cent enriched uranium." According to the latest report by the UN atomic watchdog, Iran currently has around 2,065 kilogrammes (4,543 pounds) of LEU which it processed at its Natanz plant in defiance of repeated Security Council ultimatums and three rounds of UN sanctions. Iran's latest offer is significant as it had previously baulked at the idea of delivering 1,200 kilos of LEU in one go, insisting that it would only hand over the stocks in phases. Under the plan drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia would have produced the 20 percent enriched uranium, which would have then been converted into fuel by France. Iranian officials had strongly opposed the plan as they saw it as a ruse by Western powers to deprive Iran of its uranium stockpile, and had put forward a rival proposal to either buy the 20 percent enriched uranium fuel on the international market or conduct a fuel swap in stages on Iranian territory.
