Atomic chief and acting foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi declared in a report Saturday that Iran can make its own nuclear fuel plates and rods, technology the West had said Tehran did not possess.
"We have built an advanced manufacturing unit in the Esfahan (nuclear) site for the fuel plates," Salehi, the driving force behind Iran's atomic programme, told Fars news agency in what was said to be an exclusive interview.
"A grand transformation has taken place in the production of (nuclear) plates and rods. With the completion of the unit in Esfahan, we are one of the few countries which can produce fuel rods and fuel plates."