Tehran, Iran, April 13
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran requires 50,000 centrifuges to meet Bushehr nuclear power plants' annual needs.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the Head of Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), said that Bushehr plant needs some 30 tons of enriched uranium each year in order to fully run, Iran's Fars News Agency reported on April 13.
Salehi added that Iran has 20,000 first generation centrifuges in Natanz site, out of which only 9,000 are operational.
"Iran has produced seven to eight tons of enriched uranium so far," Salehi explained.
He went on to stress that Iran needs to install fourth generation centrifuges in Natanz.
"The capacity of fourth generation centrifuges is 15 times more than the first generations' capacity," he said.
"Iran is a member of NPT so it has the right to enrich uranium up to 90 percent," Salehi noted.
"Before the Islamic revolution [in 1979] the Americans said that Iran needs to annually produce 20,000 megawatt hours of nuclear electricity. Now we want to reach the goal," he added.
The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) became officially operational and was connected to Iran's national grid in September 2011, generating electricity at 40-percent capacity.
The 1,000-megawatt plant, which is operating under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reached its maximum power generation capacity in August 2012.
In September 2013, Iran officially took over from Russia the first unit of its first 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant for two years.
