IAEA Team in Tehran for More Talks

RIA Novosti

13:33 20/02/2012 MOSCOW, February 20 (RIA Novosti) - A high-level delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday for talks on further cooperation.

The five-member delegation is led by IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts.

"We hope to have few days of good and constructive talks in Tehran," Nackaerts said on Sunday, adding that the meeting with Iranian authorities should yield “real results.”

Western powers and Israel suspect Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, however, Iran stronly denies this, saying its program is of a civilian nature only.

Meanwhile, Iran’s top nuclear official said the core of a reactor in Tehran would be changed in the coming months, which is the latest in a string of statements about nuclear developments in the Islamic republic .

Fereydoun Abbasi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying the reactor had at least 20 fuel assemblies and their numbers would increase.

"We have placed the first indigenous fuel complex into the reactor core and we will add more in the coming months so that finally we can replace the old core with a new one," he said.

Abbasi said the reactor was "very important" since it would enable the country to produce vital pharmaceuticals.