AEOI chief: Iran to launch new uranium dioxide production units soon

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi lauded the AEOI experts for their relentless efforts to develop the country’s nuclear industry, and announced that new uranium dioxide production lines will be launched in the near future. “The UO2 (production) lines will be completely launched in the next few months,” Salehi said while visiting the different sections of the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan.   The AEOI chief underlined that the country’s nuclear industry has reached a level that it should focus on the generation of science and technology as well as research development instead of copying other's knowledge. In April 2011, Iran launched its first UO2 production unit on the occasion of the country’s 'National Day of Nuclear Technology'. UO2, also known as urania or uranous oxide, is an oxide of uranium, and is a black, radioactive, crystalline powder that naturally occurs in the mineral uraninite. It is used in nuclear fuel rods in nuclear reactors. UO2 is used mainly as nuclear fuel, specifically as UO2 or as a mixture of UO2 and PuO2 (plutonium dioxide) called a mixed oxide (MOX fuel) for fuel rods in nuclear reactors. Uranium dioxide is produced by reducing uranium trioxide with hydrogen. This reaction plays an important part in the creation of nuclear fuel through nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment.