A senior Iranian official says inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have begun their visit of Arak heavy water plant.Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said on Sunday that the IAEA inspectors visit will be concluded later in the day and they will return to the Austrian capital of Vienna tonight.
The IAEA inspectors arrived in Iran earlier on Saturday to visit the countrys nuclear facility.
In November, Iran and the UN nuclear agency agreed on a roadmap for more cooperation on outstanding nuclear issues. Under the agreement, Iran would, on a voluntary basis, allow the IAEA inspectors to visit Arak heavy water plant and Gachin uranium mine in Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran.
The voluntary move is a goodwill gesture on the part of Iran to clear up ambiguities over the peaceful nature of its nuclear energy program.
Kamalvandi said the IAEA inspection of Gachin mine will be discussed during the upcoming meeting between representatives from Iran and the UN nuclear agency on Wednesday in Vienna.
Commenting on remarks made by US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman on the dismantling of many parts of Irans nuclear facilities, Kamalvandi said, Iranian officials have many times reiterated their stance that Irans nuclear rights are non-negotiable and these rights include [the right to possess] the complete nuclear fuel cycle, including enrichment.
On November 24, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - Russia, China, France, Britain and the US - plus Germany sealed an interim deal in the Swiss city of Geneva to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the Wests decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program.
Sherman said on December 5 that a comprehensive agreement between Iran and the six world powers "includes a lot of dismantling of their [Iranian] infrastructure.
Iran has announced that Arak reactor, which uses natural uranium to produce radio medicines, is planned to gradually replace the Tehran research reactor to produce medical radioisotopes for cancer patients.
By Press TV
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