TEHRAN (FNA)- Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi announced that Tehran and Moscow will cooperate in building two new nuclear power plants in Iran's Southern Bushehr province.


"Iran and Russia have reached the final agreements on building two (nuclear) power plants and this will be finalized in Tehran on Monday and Tuesday (during the current visit by Nikolai Spassky, the deputy director general for international affairs at Russia's Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation to Iran) and it is possible that (construction of) more (nuclear) power plants will also be discussed in addition to these two power plants," Kamalvandi said in an interview with Iran-based Arabic-language Al-Alam TV channel on Monday.

Noting that the two power plants will be built beside the country's current nuclear power plant in Bushehr, he expressed the hope that construction work of the two power plants would start this year after inking the relevant agreements with Russia.

Elsewhere, Kamalvandi dismissed alleged concerns voiced by certain regional states about the safety of Iran's nuclear power plant construction, and said many regional countries either have already started or have plans to build similar facilities, including the UAE which has 4 nuclear power plants under-construction, Saudi Arabia which has earlier announced willingness to build nuclear power plants and Turkey which has plans for construction of 8 nuclear power plants, "and this shows the region's need to this type of energy".

The deputy director general of Rosatom arrived in Tehran on Monday morning to hold talks with senior Iranian officials on further cooperation.

During his two-day stay, Spassky will hold talks with AEOI Chief Ali Akbar Salehi, Kamalvandi and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi.

In March, Rosatom and the AEOI reached an agreement to construct at least two more nuclear power plants in Bushehr, Southern Iran.

According to Kamalvandi, the agreement is part of a 1992 deal between the two countries on further nuclear cooperation.

Under the agreement, the new facilities will be built next to the first unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and each will have the capacity to produce at least 1,000 megawatts of electricity, Kamalvandi said, adding� that the deal also includes the construction of two desalination units.

Salehi has on different occasions announced that Iran is ready to continue its mutual cooperation with Russia in peaceful nuclear energy.

On February 3, Salehi said that Iran is in talks with Russia on the construction of new nuclear power plants to produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

On January 16, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he had exchanged views with senior Russian officials on the construction of new nuclear power plants in Iran during his visit to Moscow.

The Islamic Republic signed the Bushehr contract with Russia in 1995 and the nuclear power plant reached its full capacity by August 2012. It is located about 18 kilometers South of the provincial capital.

By Fars News Agency

 

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