Iran unveils new nuclear achievement

Iran has unveiled domestically-produced deuterated compounds at Arak heavy water plant in a ceremony attended by international envoys to the UN nuclear agency.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi hailed the achievement on Saturday and pointed to its use in medical research, a Press TV correspondent reported.

These compounds have medicinal purposes such as enhancing the effects of some drugs. It also can be used in making optic fiber and certain polymers.

“Iran has produced five deuterated compounds and scientists are working on projects to produce five to ten more in the future,” Salehi said at the unveiling ceremony.

“The compounds here have applications in various scientific fields, including chemistry, agriculture, biology, medicine and pharmaceuticals,” an Iranian scientist explained to the international envoys touring the facility.

The deuterated compounds can be used as solvents in tracing new synthetic chemicals using the NMR technique, as well as helping scientists monitor and evaluate complicated chemical reactions, the Iranian scientist added.

Salehi went on to add that Iran is the first country in the world to have opened up its nuclear facilities to other states, which proves that the country “has nothing to hide.”

Iran has repeatedly refuted Western accusations that Tehran is following a military nuclear program.

Delegates from Algeria, Cuba, Syria, Oman, Egypt, Venezuela, and the League of Arab States, arrived in Tehran on Saturday, after the Islamic republic invited diplomats representing political and geographical groups in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to tour the country’s nuclear facility.

Egypt is the current head of NAM, and the G77 is being represented by Algeria.

In a meeting with the envoys, Salehi, who is also the country’s caretaker foreign minister, hailed the Iranian decision as a gesture of goodwill and transparency.