TEHRAN, April 9 (UPI) -- There's no reason for Iran to stop advancements in its peaceful nuclear enrichment program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday.
Iran marked Tuesday as National Nuclear Technology Day. The commemoration follows two days worth of multilateral nuclear negotiations in Kazakhstan.
Ahmadinejad said Iran must work quickly on advancing its nuclear program. He said Iran has already become a nuclear power and no outsiders can take that title away, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reports.
He ordered nuclear officials to work to launch five new nuclear reactors in the country as soon as possible.
Ahmad Kamali, city governor of Ardakan in central Iran, said a uranium mine would start developing yellow cake soon, IRNA adds. Yellow cake is a form of uranium oxide later used for enrichment purposes.
Iran is suspected of using its nuclear research as cover for a weapons program, an allegation it denies.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Germany, said talks in Kazakhstan were fluid but deadlocked. No plans for another round of negotiations were announced.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude-6.3 earthquake in Iran. The epicenter was recorded Tuesday about 55 miles from the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran. The facility wasn't damaged in the quake.
