Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.16
By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:
Iran released the details of the country's nuclear budget and expenditures.
The budget bill submitted to Iran's parliament on Dec. 7 indicated that the country spent 22.207 trillion rials (approximately $3-3.5 billion) until March 2009 in nuclear sphere. The country also spent 14.85 trillion rials (approximately $1-1.5 billion) on the nuclear expenditures during a period between March 2009 to March 2014.
Iranian government projected that some 5.681 trillion rials would be spent on developing nuclear projects in next fiscal year, which will start on March 20, 2015.
Considering the US dollar's official rate recognized in Iran's next year budget at 28,500 rials, Iran plans to spend $181 million in nuclear sphere next year.
According to the budget details released by ANA news agency (Free University News Agency ) on Dec.16, Iran is going to spend some $21 million on uranium reserves exploration, $62.5 million on developing Bushehr nuclear power plant, and about $20 million for various activities like producing 34 metric tons of 5 percent-enriched uranium oxide and 50 metric tons of zirconium sponge.
Iran also wants to allocate $6 million to security-related spheres to protect nuclear facilities from cyber attacks, etc.
Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran's energy sector, head of Trend Agency's Iran news service
Follow him on @dalgakhatinoglu