Iran will build up to 10 new uranium enrichment facilities
Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN - The Iranian cabinet has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a directive that requires the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to formulate the plans for the construction of 10 more uranium enrichment facilities on the scale of the Natanz nuclear plant within two months.

The directive, which was ratified on Sunday, envisages the construction of five plants, for which the land has already been set aside, to begin within two months.

According to the Fourth Development Plan (2005-2010), Iran’s nuclear power plants should eventually generate up to 20,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, so the administration should supply the power plants with the needed nuclear fuel by establishing new enrichment plants, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday.

Iran should reach a point to be able to produce 250 to 300 tons of nuclear fuel annually to meet the demand of the nuclear power plants, so Iran needs to manufacture and install 50,0000 new high-performance centrifuges, he added.

Cabinet will soon decide on option to enrich uranium to 20%

President Ahmadinejad also declared that the cabinet will study the option to produce nuclear fuel with a purity of 20 percent for the Tehran research reactor at a meeting on Wednesday.

The decision was made because the 5+1 group (China, the United States, Russia, France, Britain, and Germany) has so far failed to respond to Iran’s latest proposal, according to which Tehran requires a 100 percent guarantee that it will receive the 20 percent enriched uranium if it agrees to a trade for its low-enriched uranium.

“We have a friendly and compassionate approach toward the entire world, but at the same time, we will not allow one jot of the Iranian nation’s rights to be trampled upon,” the president asserted.

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