Page 46 - IRANRptAug18

signatories say that the provides the best way to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb.
Although Iran is moving to put itself in a position from where it can get enrichment activities back on track, it maintains that its nuclear work has never been aimed at anything more than electricity generation and other civilian projects. Atomic energy agency head Salehi said the new factory did not in itself break the terms of the nuclear deal. “Instead of building this factory in the next seven or eight years, we built it during the negotiations but have not started it,” Salehi said, according to state media.
The factory would have the capacity to build rotors for up to 60 IR-6 centrifuges per day, he added. Salehi has also said Iran now has a stockpile of up to 950 tonnes of uranium, with 550 tonnes imported before the nuclear agreement was sealed and around 400 tonnes acquired after the agreement was finalised.
Last month, Salehi announced that Iran has started working on infrastructure for building advanced centrifuges at its Natanz facility.
The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, predicts energy consumption in Iran will increase by 30% by 2040, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported on April 28. Iran has diversified its mix of energy generation suppliers in recent years. They now include nuclear, solar, gas and hydroelectric dam operators. Solar energy accounts for an increasingly large part of the country’s power production, with Iran highly suitable for solar ventures as it enjoys more than 320 sunny days per year on average. Moving onto the benefits of developing Iran’s oldest nuclear power plant partially built before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Salehi observed that the facility produces 1,000 megawatts of power annually. He added that the nuclear share of the power generation mix currently stands at 1.3% of capacity and 2.3% of power generation. Salehi also noted that it would take 45mn barrels of crude oil to generate this amount of power.
9.1.11 Defence sector news
Iran is planning to manufacture or upgrade up to 800 tanks, Tasnim news agency quoted Deputy Defence Minister Reza Mozaffarinia as saying on July 19. “The upgrade and manufacture of 700 to 800 tanks has been planned,” he reportedly said. “Annually there are 50 to 60 tanks manufactured and a sufficient budget has been allocated because the army and Revolutionary Guards have a great need.”
Mozaffarinia did not detail the type of tanks he was referring to.
While the US and European powers have long sought to curb Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its conventional military forces are thought to be weaker than its main regional rival Saudi Arabia, Reuters wrote.
According to the CIA factbook, Iran’s military expenditure as a percentage of GDP was 2.69% in 2015 and Saudi Arabia’s 9.86% in 2016.
In a December report, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Iran would modernise and rebalance its conventional forces “to reflect lessons learned in Syria.” Iran has been fighting in Syria in support of the government of president Bashar al-Assad since 2012.
46 IRAN Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com