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Iran set to build 5 new nuclear reactors

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  • Iran set to build 5 new nuclear reactors

    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
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