IRAN TO BUILD 10 MORE ENRICHMENT PLANTS

"The Iranian government approved a plan... to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities... just two days after the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency censured Iran, demanding it immediately stop building a newly revealed enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom and freeze all uranium enrichment activities...

"... the new sites (will) be on the same scale as Iran's only other industrial-scale enrichment plant currently in operation, near the town of Natanz in central Iran. About 8,600 centrifuges have been set up in Natanz, but only about 4,000 are actively enriching uranium... The facility will eventually house 54,000 centrifuges...

"Iran,... says it seeks only to generate electricity... (and) aims to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power plants in the next 20 years... the new plants are needed to produce enough fuel for its future reactors... Iran will need to install 500,000 centrifuges throughout the planned enrichment facilities to produce between 250 to 300 tons of fuel annually..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_nuclear