Iran set to build 5 new nuclear reactors

press tv
Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:17:21 GMT

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting the Natanz nuclear
enrichment facility
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEO) says the country plans to
construct five additional nuclear reactors in the next five years.

AEO Deputy Head Mohammad Qannad revealed Sunday that the agency has
been tasked with meeting 10 percent of the country’s energy demand —
approximately 20,000 megawatts — through nuclear energy in the near
future.

"For the next five years, Iran plans to produce 5,000 megawatts of
[nuclear] energy," he added.

Iran suffers from an electricity shortage and adopted a rationing
program in the summer to ease the problem by scheduling power outages
across urban and rural areas in the country.

Over the past decade, Russia has been helping Iran with the
construction of its first 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in the
southern Iranian city of Bushehr.

Experts in the country have also begun creating designs for the second
Iranian nuclear plant — located in Darkhovin in the southern province
of Khuzestan.

Over 5,000 centrifuges are currently operational in the country. AEO
Head Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, however, announced plans in November to
install 50,000 centrifuges in the country’s nuclear facilities in a
period of five years.

The US, Israel and their European allies accuse Iran of having military
objectives in the pursuit of its nuclear program and claim that the
amount of UF6 at the country’s disposal is "enough for a bomb".

According to Qannad, Iran is currently ranked seventh amongst countries
capable of producing uranium hexafluoride (UF6).

Although UF6 gas can be used both in the production of fuel for nuclear
reactors and nuclear weapons, all nuclear activities at Iranian nuclear
facilities are controlled through the 24-hour surveillance of the
International Atomic Energy Agency — the UN body pertinent to probing
nuclear programs.

The UN nuclear watchdog conceded in its latest report that Iran has
managed to enrich uranium-235 to a level "less than 5 percent" — a
rate consistent with the development of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear
arms production, meanwhile, requires an enrichment level of above 90
percent.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress