TEHRAN (FNA)- Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Chief Ali Akbar Salehi left Tehran for Moscow on Tuesday morning to sign an agreement with the Russians on the construction of two new nuclear power plants for Iran.


"I will travel to Moscow to sign contracts for building new nuclear power plants," Salehi told reporters before his departure.

The AEOI chief underlined that the construction of these nuclear power plants will begin in the near future.

Salehi is accompanied by AEOI Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi, his deputies and a number of nuclear experts during his visit to Russia.

Salehi is due to meet Head of Russia's Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko during his stay in Moscow.

On Sunday, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanayee said that Salehi and Kiriyenko will sign documents on the expansion of cooperation between Iran and Russia in the field of the civilian nuclear technology.

Kamalvandi had also announced in June that Salehi would visit Moscow "in the coming months" to ink a cooperation protocol with the Russians on the construction of two new nuclear power plants for Iran.

Kamalvandi said construction of the two new nuclear power plants would start in the current Iranian year (which will end on March 20, 2015).

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.

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.

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

Kamalvandi said at the time that the agreement was 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.

By Fars News Agency

 

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