AEOI Chief: Iran Discovers New Uranium Reserves

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi announced that Iran has found more uranium-ore reserves in the last several months.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the country’s nuclear managers here in Tehran on Saturday, Abbasi said that supplying the basic materials for the nuclear industry is top on Iran’s agenda.

“We have taken many actions to discover uranium mines during the last 34 years (since the victory of the Islamic revolution) and we have done more in area of discovery in the last 1.5 years and we have discovered new uranium resources,” Abbasi added, but provided no further details about the new discoveries.

He further said Iran has planned to generate more electricity through nuclear energy in the coming years. “Following months of efforts, 16 new sites for nuclear power plants have been designated in coastal areas of the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, Southwestern province of Khuzestan and Northwestern part of the country.”

He added the projects are in line with Iran’s long-term plans to develop electricity generation via nuclear power plants and in accordance with standard and international regulations.

Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world’s fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic.

Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.

Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the NPT would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West’s hardline stance on Tehran.

Iran has also insisted that it would continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it plans to build in the Southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr.