I am not asking this rethorically, I genuinely want to understand both sides of the argument.
2007-10-26 05:16:58 · 14 answers · asked by arielkorber 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
This is a perfectly reasonable question.
Actually Iran probably does use a lot of energy. It has 70.5 million people and a GDP of maybe US700 billion. Their energy consumption may be low compared to a rich 1st world country but that is relative.
And Iran has hydroelectric and solar thermal plants so I think that Iranians are serious about wanting to develop nuclear energy as a way to diversify their energy sources away from fossil fuels. Iran has many large uranium deposits so fuel isn't a problem for them. And with the biggest cost with nuclear energy is building the reactors.
And of course Iran depends on exporting oil and gas. Kind of like Russia where they have reactors and can export more of their oil and gas to the EU.
Maybe most important is what will Iran do when their oil is depleted. They are probably thinking of that. Any country that depends on oil exporting has to be thinking of that fact.
So yes it is very reasonable that Iran wants to develop nuclear energy for a prosperous economy for the future.
That doesn't mean I trust them not to build nuclear weapons.
2007-10-26 05:49:23 · answer #1 · answered by ♥ ~Sigy the Arctic Kitty~♥ 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Excellent question.
Iran has a large oil supply, but has no means of refining it. Iran sells CRUDE oil, but does not have a sizable refinery to make it into a usable energy source. I was watching the news and was shocked to see that Iranians were waiting in gas lines in Iran several months ago (maybe even a year ago) and asked the same question of a friend who's an executive for Amoco and he said that they have oil, but can't refine it to make it into fuel.
I just googled it and here's one of the many sites that explains that Iran actually IMPORTS 40% of the gasoline it needs, because of a lack of refineries to change what it produces and sells (crude oil) to a usable energy source (gasoline):
http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=iran+does+not+have+a+refinery&fr=ks-ans&u=www.strategypage.com/qnd/iran/articles/20061222.aspx&w=iran+does+doe+not+refinery+refineries&d=FTNjl-dmPqP9&icp=1&.intl=us
2007-10-26 12:29:25 · answer #2 · answered by TJTB 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because nuclear energy is more enironmentally friendly than oil. Just imagine if their country had all the nuclear power they could handle. That woud be the bomb!!
2007-10-26 12:25:30 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Further, why are they trying to reinvent the wheel when the French could just come in and build them reactors, basically for free?
No, no one believes that the Iranians are trying to generate power with their nuclear program. The Iranians themselves don't even believe it. Everyone should just drop the whole charade...
2007-10-26 12:24:37 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The lack the capacity to process there oil and the sanctions that have been imposed prevent the sales of the technology to them
2007-10-26 12:49:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Could be that they know that oil reserves are not unlimited and want to somehow economically survive the end of their oil reserves. Or it could be that they see what happened to Iraq and they want nuclear weapons as a deterrent.
2007-10-26 12:25:56 · answer #6 · answered by Iupiter Stator 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
To build THE bomb as a deterent to the ~200 to 300 Warheads owned by Israel
2007-10-26 12:22:06 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Perhaps they want to sell energy to their neighbours. This happens a lot in Europe
2007-10-26 12:20:44 · answer #8 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
So they cal sell all their oil to America for Hugh Profits.
2007-10-26 12:20:37 · answer #9 · answered by Rja 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They make money off of selling oil,the less they use the more money they make. That is putting it simply
2007-10-26 12:24:59 · answer #10 · answered by here to help 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋