Iran News:

Iran nuclear program self-sufficient, top official claims

By the CNN Wire Staff

December 5, 2010 -- Updated 1258 GMT (2058 HKT)

File image shows the inside of the Russian-built reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant in southern Iran.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Iran is now producing yellowcake, but it's not clear that means nuclear independence
• NEW: Iran wants to show it's not negotiating from weakness, CNN's Reza Sayah says
• The announcement comes a day before nuclear negotiations resume
• The United States fears that Iran wants a nuclear bomb, but Tehran denies it

(CNN) -- Iran now produces everything it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program self-sufficient, the head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization told state media Sunday.

The Islamic republic has begun producing yellowcake, Ali Akbar Salehi told Press TV.

Yellowcake, an intermediate stage in processing uranium, is a uranium oxide concentrate which is then heated to remove impurities, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.

Why does uranium enrichment matter so much?

Iran had been importing it, Salehi said, but is now mining it and processing it within the country.

Despite Iran's claims that it can now run the entire nuclear fuel cycle without help from abroad, it is not clear that Tehran actually has the technology to turn enriched uranium into fuel rods to run a nuclear reactor.

Russia is supplying the fuel rods for Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor.

The United States and its allies fear that Iran is trying to produce a nuclear bomb. Iran denies it.

Salehi's announcement came just a day before Iran is to continue stalled nuclear talks with the so-called P5 plus 1 countries -- Germany and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom.

That's no coincidence, CNN's Reza Sayah says. Iran wants to show that despite ever-tighter sanctions, it is not negotiating from a position of weakness.

The talks are set to take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday and Tuesday, said a spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief.

The spokeswoman said the goal of the talks is to end Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

It has been more than a year since the Islamic state has had formal discussions with the P5 plus 1.

Iran has been under stiff sanctions over its continuation of uranium enrichment.

Two Iranian nuclear scientists were targeted by bombers on Monday, leaving one dead.

Iran blamed Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom's spy agencies for the attacks, which killed Majid Shahriari and injured Fereydoun Abbasi.

But Salehi said Sunday that the "assassination of Iranian scientists will not hamper our progress."

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