TEHRAN, Aug 29: Iran announced on Monday it has made another breakthrough in its controversial nuclear programme by successfully using biotechnology to extract purer uranium from its mines.

A report on state television said researchers from Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, after six years of research, had mastered the technique of employing microbes to purify uranium ore in mines prior to mining. It said “using biotechnology substantially decreases the cost, increases optimisation and prevents environmental contamination” in the process that leads to the production of yellowcake, or concentrated uranium oxide.

The report, quoting a senior researcher, said the microbes were “successfully used in experimental stages” in central Iran’s uranium mines.

“This bacteria is very valuable” and makes the production of yellowcake “100 to 200 times cheaper”, he said. Yellowcake is a part of the early stages of the nuclear fuel cycle.

The development is likely to reinforce the impression among Iran’s critics that even though Tehran has been forced to suspend certain fuel cycle activities it has continued to make great strides on others.—AFP