Iran announces uranium discovery, plans to build 16 new nuclear power plants

Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard, meanwhile, begins three-day ground and air military exercise aimed at upgrading its combat readiness.

Iran said it has found significant new deposits of raw uranium to feed its nuclear program and has identified sites for 16 more nuclear power stations, just days before talks with Western powers over its disputed atomic program.

The Iran Atomic Energy Organization 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.

There was no independent confirmation but with few uranium mines of its own, Western experts had previously thought that Iran may be close to exhausting its supply of raw uranium.

Diplomats say the United States and its allies – the so called 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 the production demonstrates Tehran's intent to develop a nuclear weapons capability, an allegation the Islamic republic denies.

The enriched uranium required for use in nuclear reactors or weapons is produced in centrifuges that spin uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) at high speeds. The UF6 is derived in a reaction from yellow cake, a concentrate from uranium ore discovered in mines.

more here: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/iran-announces-uranium-discovery-plans-to-build-16-new-nuclear-power-plants-1.505268

I'm growing scared with Iran's ambition. We all know Iran's Islamic Government hates Israel so much that it will do everything to wipe it from the map. But at the same time, I can't discard Iran's right to enrich and have their own nuclears.