Hagel: Israel Has Right To Decide On Iran Strike

[bananas]

5. "No sound strategic energy planning would prioritize nuclear energy in a country like Iran"

"No sound strategic energy planning would prioritize nuclear energy in a country like Iran."

"Instead of enhancing Iran's energy security, the nuclear program has diminished the country's ability to diversify and achieve real energy independence."

That's from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Federation of American Scientists.

Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/03/us-iran-nuclear-report-idUSBRE93200620130403

Iran's nuclear program entails huge costs, few benefits: report
By Yeganeh Torbati
DUBAI | Tue Apr 2, 2013 8:11pm EDT

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The report, entitled "Iran's Nuclear Odyssey: Costs and Risks", seeks to tabulate the opportunity costs of the nuclear program, and puts these at "well over $100 billion" in terms of lost foreign investment and oil revenues.

Relatively small uranium deposits will keep Iran from being fully self-sufficient in nuclear energy, it said, while Tehran has neglected to maintain existing infrastructure and develop other resources that could better secure its energy needs.

For instance, Iran's 1,000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear reactor, which came onstream in 2011 after repeated delays, accounts for just 2 percent of its electricity production, while about 15 percent of "generated electricity is lost through old and ill-maintained transmission lines", the report said.

Iran has vast oil and gas reserves, but sanctions have forced major Western firms to abandon the petroleum sector, making crucial upkeep difficult. Iran's solar and wind energy sectors have also gone undeveloped, the report said.

<snip>

The report is at http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/02/iran-s-nuclear-odyssey-costs-and-risks/fvui

PDF version: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/iran_nuclear_odyssey.pdf