Iran TV shows domestic nuclear fuel inserted in reactor

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led a ceremony on Wednesday inserting Iran's first domestically produced, 20-percent enriched nuclear fuel into Tehran's research reactor, according to live images on state television.

The procedure was being hailed as a technical achievement in Iran, showing the Islamic republic had mastered all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle despite tough Western and UN sanctions.

In this April 9, 2007 file photo, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a ceremony in Iran`s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kilometers 186 (miles) south of capital Tehran, Iran. (AP-Yonhap News)

The television showed Ahmadinejad, Atomic Energy Organisation head Fereydoon Abassi Davani and other officials all dressed in white coats inside the reactor, watching a metal-encased rod being inserted into the facility's pool.

The broadcaster then cut to file images of four Iranian scientists -- three of them nuclear researchers -- who were murdered by unknown motorbike assailants in Tehran over the past two years.