Iran and Nuclear Energy
Iran has long insisted that nuclear power is necessary for a booming population and growing industrialization in the Iranian economy. Since the population of Iran has more than doubled in the past 20 years, the government of Iran supports that the need for nuclear power is evident.
The country regularly imports gasoline and electricity and ensures that burning fossil fuel in large amounts can cause significant harm to the overall Iranian environment. Iran also wishes to diversity their sources of energy.
The oil reserves from Iran are currently estimated at 133 billion barrels with a current pumping rate of 1.5 to 1.8 billion barrels each year. Assuming that the pumping rates remain steady and additional reserves are not found, this is only enough oil to last Iran for the next 75 years or so.
Iranians feel that their valuable oil should be used for products that are higher in value than the generation of electricity. They feel that petroleum is a much too noble material to burn and hope to begin producing nearly 23000 megawatts of electricity using their nuclear plants.
Iran is also facing financial constrains and claim that developing the excess capacity in the oil industry will cost the country more than $40 billion. In a study from Johns Hopkins University, Roger Stern has deduced that since energy subsidies, hostility to foreign investment and the inefficiencies to the Iranian economy, the oil exports could potentially vanish completely by the year 2015.
During his presidency, the Gerald Ford administration also concluded this to be a potential problem for the Iranian economy. Due to these potential outcomes, the United States National Academy of Sciences has previously concluded that the Iranian government has a valid economic basis for the nuclear energy program of that country.
Iranian authorities believe that they can not trust the United States or Europe to provide the country with nuclear energy fuel. This conclusion points to a long list of agreements, contracts and treaty obligations which were left ultimately unfulfilled.
Developing nations state that they do not want to give up their rights to the enrichment of uranium and do not trust the United States or other countries of nuclear production to be steady suppliers of the nuclear materials that they would need in order to run their own power plants.
The determination to continue the nuclear energy program in Iran is strong, as is the decision to retaliate against any Western attacks over the nuclear power program.