Iran plans to export N. technology

Senior Iranian nuclear officials announced that the country would soon become a leading exporter of nuclear equipment."We reached self -sufficiency on nuclear technology despite sanctions and we will export nuclear technologies in near future," Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereydoon Abbasi announced on Tuesday. He said Iran plans to generate 20 megawatt electricity through launching nuclear power plants. "We want to attract more researchers and scientists and activate the private sector's participation in this field. "We are completing construction of the IR-40 research reactor," Abbasi added. The IR-40 is an Iranian 40 megawatt (thermal) heavy water reactor under construction in Arak. Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic. Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical. Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the NPT would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West's hardline stance on Tehran. Iran has also insisted that it would continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the Southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr.