Iran to Build New Uranium Enrichment Centers
Amid extended sanctions against Iran, the U.S. Treasury department vigilantly going after business and organizations tied to Iran's nuclear and missile programs, Iran announced plans to build an additional 10 uranium enrichment facilities by the end of next year. This is good news for no-one, since their partner in this surge of nuclear construction is none other than our favorite cold war enemy - Russia.
Starting as soon as next week at the Bushehr facility, Iran will be accepting delivery of fuel from the Russians for the nuclear facility at Bushehr, then Russia will be taking out the enriched fuel. Kind of negating the point of even performing the process in Iran unless Russia will be leaving a bit of the enriched fuel behind. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs believes that perhaps Iran's intentions are pure, since they won't be keeping the fuel - just using the produced energy.
"Russia is providing the fuel, and taking the fuel back out. It, quite clearly, I think, underscores that Iran does not need its own enrichment capability if its intentions, as it states, are for a peaceful nuclear program."
Of course, they are using the produced energy to fuel the building of the next ten plants, but up to 20 more plants.
"We in the parliament have tasked the government with producing 20,000 megawatts of nuclear electricity. That means setting up 20 power plants like Bushehr," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. "To supply the fuel needed for these power plants ... we should carry out (uranium) enrichment and we are doing it," he said.
Russia maintains that it will be watching the enrichment process closely, enlisting the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the transport and movement of the fuel. The hope is that nothing "falls off the truck." However, with plans for so many facilities, a rod of enriched uranium falling off the truck is the least of the world's worries.
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