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AEOI: Iran must build 30,000 more centrifuges to feed Bushehr

Iran Materials 14 April 2014 05:30 (UTC +04:00)
Iran says it must build 30,000 more first generation centrifuges if it wants to meet the annual fuel needed at Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, PressTV reported
AEOI: Iran must build 30,000 more centrifuges to feed Bushehr

Iran says it must build 30,000 more first generation centrifuges if it wants to meet the annual fuel needed at Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, PressTV reported.

"Of course, if the Natanz facility is to meet Bushehr's annual fuel need, it must have 50,000 first generation centrifuges. Presently, we have 20,000 devices there, but only 9,000 of them are spinning," Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday.

The Islamic Republic currently imports the nuclear fuel for Bushehr nuclear power plant from Russia.

"Now, we have to manufacture 30,000 more machines so that the Natanz enrichment facility" could produce fuel for Bushehr Power Plant for one year, the nuclear chief added.

Salehi said that Tehran should be able to produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear power in a 20-year period.

"So far we have produced seven to eight tons of enriched uranium, but for Bushehr Power Plant to run for one year, we should have 50,000 machines to produce 30 tons of enriched uranium. We are still eight years away from the point of meeting our one-year demand," he added.

In September 2013, Iran officially took over from Russia the first unit of its first 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr for two years. The initial construction of the Bushehr facility began in 1975 by German companies, but the work was halted following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

After signing a deal on the construction of nuclear plants in 1992, Iran and Russia reached an agreement in 1995 to complete the Bushehr plant.

In an interview with Press TV on February 3, the AEOI head said the Islamic Republic is in talks with Russia for the construction of new nuclear power plants to produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

Bushehr now produces 1,000 megawatts of electricity. Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and aimed at meeting the country's growing energy and medical needs.

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