Nuclear reactor fuel is enriched to 3-5% Uranium-235.
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Rather than sit down with the six, it may be hoping to revive talks about a separate proposal for Russia, France, America and the IAEA to help it find replacement 20%-enriched fuel for a research reactor in Tehran that supplies medical isotopes.
But you can indeed make those medical treatments with a reactor that uses low enriched.
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For uranium to work in a nuclear reactor it must be enriched to contain 2-3% uranium-235 while weapons-grade uranium must contain 90% or more uranium-235.
After Qom, Iran appeared to back off a bit by agreeing in principle to ship abroad much of its uranium stock (a bomb's worth or thereabouts if sufficiently re-enriched) for reworking to provide the needed reactor fuel.
The idea was for Iran to ship 1, 200kg of its low-enriched uranium overseas to produce fuel for a research reactor, thus leaving the country for a while with too small a stockpile with which to make a bomb.
U.S. and United Nations officials have documented what they describe as serious limitations in Iran's ability to quickly and efficiently produce the enriched uranium required to either fuel a nuclear power reactor or to build an atomic weapon.
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It could also be possible to provide similarly enriched fuel, perhaps from France, for the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) and LEU targets for producing medical isotopes in the reactor.
Under the proposal, Iran would get the fuel it needs for its research reactor in Tehran, but this would not be sufficiently enriched to make a bomb.
The United States and other leading nations have been negotiating with Iran to send low-enriched uranium abroad to be turned into material for use in medical research and treatment at a reactor in Tehran.
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