Iranian Power Plants Department Head Asadollah Saburi Reveals Details About Iranian Nuclear Program

The following are excerpts from an interview with Asadollah Saburi, who heads the power plants department in the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization. Jam-e Jam2 TV aired this interview on March 8, 2005:

Asadollah Saburi: We have technical knowhow for all the aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, ranging from the discovery, the mining, the production of Uranium and turning it into UF6, and its enrichment to the degree necessary for a power plant. The only thing that we lack is turning this technical knowhow into industrial plants for continuous production. Even after enrichment there are two additional aspects. After we attain enrichment to a degree of three to four percent, the fuel system should be established. There are two more factories, and the Atomic Energy organization has begun to act on this issue. Only when we reach industrial production we will be able to supply the fuel for the plant. This alone may take four to five years. In four or five years we will be expecting the second Bushehr unit to be activated. Then you will be asking when we will activate it. The second unit should also be built.

The cost of the initial fuel for the Bushehr power plant is 56 million dollars for 90 tons. We can carry out the entire construction of a nuclear power plant, due to the experience we gained building the first unit in Bushehr.

Voice of Rozita, a caller from the US: If instead of nuclear technology and energy you were to build some public toilets alongside the highways, there would be no problem for the Iranians and for me and others coming to Iran from the US and other countries. There should at least be some public toilets on the highways.

Interviewer: Thank you. In all fairness, I will leave the answer to your question to the viewers. What kind of a comparison it this? This isn't fair. No one denies there are problems. There are problems everywhere, and this is a long-lasting problem. But your comparing this problem to nuclear energy – I'll leave the answer to your family and friends and to the viewers.