The Gateway SPI Strategic Policies & Ideas
26.07.2023
The chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami announced that his country’s uranium reserves are much larger than previous estimates, and said that the country plans to operate six more uranium mines by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (which will end on March 20, 2024), according to Fars News Agency.
“Currently eight uranium mines are operating in the country,” Eslami said.
“Our uranium reserves in the country now exceed the previous estimates. We are currently operating eight mines, and six more mines are planned to come on stream by the end of the [Iranian calendar] year,” he added.
Eslami pointed out that over the past year and a half, several mines have been located and run to complete the nuclear fuel chain.
The head of AEOI added that the extraction of uranium ore from mines and its process through the heap leaching method greatly benefits the chain of valuable elements.
“The AEOI has drawn up and compiled a 20-year perspective plan to pave the way to attain Iran’s nuclear industry objectives,” he further added.
He added that the production of about 20,000 megawatts of nuclear-generated electricity was among the main topics discussed during a recent meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei.
Elsmai stated that Iran has held negotiations with different countries to carry out joint work on the construction of power plants, saying that the supply of fuel for small nuclear power plants was another measure taken in this regard.
Earlier this month Eslami has announced that Iran has for the first time manufactured a nuclear reactor simulator that is designed to manage the control chamber temperature and has a thermal capacity of 100 megawatts.
In the meantime, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when asked about reviving the Iran nuclear deal, said that U.S. officials are currently not talking about an agreement with their counterparts in Tehran.
During an appearance on CNN’s “GPS” with Fareed Zakaria, Blinken said that it was a terrible mistake for the Trump administration to pull out of the nuclear deal reached with Iran in 2015.
“There have been some developments and some changes since the time we got out of the deal and the time we were trying to get back in it. But fundamentally what we tried to do was to get back into the existing agreement with some modest modifications,” Blinken said. “An agreement was on the table. Iran either couldn’t or wouldn’t say yes. We’re not about to take any deal. Of course, it has to meet our security objectives. It has to meet our interests.”
“So, we made a very good faith effort to get back into compliance with them. They couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. We’re now in a place where we’re not talking about a nuclear agreement,” Blinken added, noting that administration officials want their Iranian counterparts to take actions to de-escalate the ongoing tensions between Tehran and Washington, D.C.
“Maybe we’ll have an environment where we can get back into a conversation about their nuclear program. Right now, we’re not in it.” said Blinken.
Blinken also said that U.S. officials are “working across a whole series of lines of effort to push back on them, to make sure we have a strong deterrent, to make sure we have the appropriate pressure, and then to see if we get back to an opportunity where we can work on a nuclear deal.”
“We continue to believe strongly that diplomacy is the best way to resolve this problem. That compared to all the other options, it’s the one that can produce the most sustainable, effective result,” Blinken added. “But that doesn’t mean that the other options aren’t there and if necessary we won’t resort to them.”
Republican lawmakers recently warned the Biden administration about pursuing an agreement with Iran that would provide sanctions relief without approval from Congress.
