TEHRAN: Iran has announced the discovery of substantial uranium deposits of raw uranium to fuel the country’s nuclear program and has picked 16 locations to construct new nuclear power stations, a couple of days before talks with world powers in Kazakhstan resume over its disputed atomic program.
The Iran Atomic Energy Organisation report cited by state news agency IRNA on Saturday said the deposits were found in “southern coastal areas” and had trebled the amount outlined in previous estimates.
“We have discovered new sources of uranium in the country and we will put them to use in the near future,” Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the AEOI, was quoted as saying at Iran’s annual nuclear industry conference.
There was no independent confirmation but Western experts had previously thought that Iran, with few uranium mines of its own, may be close to exhausting its supply of raw uranium.
Diplomats say the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the “P5+1”, are set to offer Iran some relief from their sanctions at the talks in Kazakhstan on Tuesday if it agrees to curb its production of higher-grade enriched uranium.
The West says Iran’s enrichment of uranium to a fissile purity of 20 percent demonstrates its intent to develop a nuclear weapons capability, an allegation the Islamic republic denies.
