JCPOA paves way for nuclear research, development: Rouhani

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says the recent nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries paves the way for the acceleration of research and development in the country’s peaceful nuclear program.

“Within the framework of the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), the ground has been prepared for faster movement and growth on the path of research, development, and new knowledge in the field of peaceful nuclear [energy],” President Rouhani said on Wednesday.

He made the remarks in an address to a conference attended by science-based health companies in the capital, Tehran.

President Rouhani called the nuclear negotiations that culminated in the JCPOA as science-based themselves, adding, “Nuclear scientists, prominent international law and political scientists, and economy scientists all joined hands so that we could reach this point.”

Expounding on the future of Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, President Rouhani stressed that the facility, whose main use is in the fields of nuclear medicine and radio-isotopes, will be modernized with the cooperation of two members of the P5+1 group.

The Iranian president also said that the Fordow nuclear facility will be a center for uranium enrichment and research activities. “Part of central Fordow is ready for enrichment; and another part of Fordow will also be maintained for modern nuclear research,” he said.

The Iranian president added that, based on the JCPOA, Iran will be able to feed gas into IR-8 centrifuges on the day the deal is implemented.

On July 14, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – plus Germany finalized the text of the JCPOA in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Under the JCPOA, limits will be put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all economic and financial bans against the Islamic Republic.