Azernews.Az

Iran possesses much less of uranium than it says it does, expert on Iran and Middle East, Reza Taghizadeh, told Trend news agency.

Taghizadeh was commenting on Iran's recent achievements in the nuclear field.

As part of marking the National Nuclear Technology Day, Iran Tuesday unveiled the Saghand uranium mining complex, and Rezaei Nejad uranium oxide producing complex.

Taghizadeh noted that Iran has not had much success in finding uranium in the last 30-40 years, adding that Iran also couldn't find any uranium in its Azarbaijan provinces.

"The are only two well-known mines which Iran has exploited for uranium - one in Natanz, and another one in Bandar Abbas. More digging did not yield any results, so in case with uranium, Iran cannot rely on domestic resources, just like Central Asian countries or Australia," Taghizadeh noted.

The expert underscored that the amount of uranium that Iran has would be enough to keep the Bushehr nuclear plan's reactor running for about 10 years.

"This is while Iran said it plans to build 30 more reactors of the same type," he said. "It simply doesn't have enough of uranium for that many reactors."

Speaking of the Rezaei Nejad uranium oxide producing complex, Taghizadeh said that even thought the complex does have a capacity to produce 60 tons of yellowcake, it doesn't mean the plant is actually working full force.

"The plant's declared capacity is 30 tons, and Iran claims it is 60, thus doubling on it capacity. Iran increases these figures artificially, using political factor - trying to show the world that it can produce nuclear fuel relying on its own sources. However, it is far from truth," Taghizadeh explained.