Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom, will start work on Iran’s Bushehr-2 nuclear power plant by the end of this year after the construction site preparations are completed.

“We hope that the Iranian side will identify seismic parameters at the site so we could start work on several new blocks already before this year is out,” a source at Rosatom said on Thursday.

Russia has already built a power plant in Bushehr. The agreement for the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant was finalized in 1995, but the project was delayed several times due to a number of technical and financial issues.

“Even with the international sanctions now lifted and foreign investors coming in, Iran still prefers to deal with its trusted partner, Russia,” Mahmoud Shoori, head of the Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic Research in Tehran, told Radio Sputnik.

Mahmoud Shoori said that after the construction and launch of the first stage of the Bushehr plant, Iran realized that it needed at least two more units and decided to give the job to Russia’s Rosatom.

“Our longtime experience of productive cooperation with Russia and the technological potential Russia demonstrated during the construction of Bushehr-1 convinced us that we had made the right choice.” Mahmoud Shoori said.

“Russia has a clear edge over all other potential contractors and we are certain that Russia is taking this job very seriously and is a partner we can trust,” Mahmoud Shoori emphasized.

Bushehr-1  was launched in September 2011 and reached its maximum power generation capacity in August 2012.

In September 2013, Iran officially took over from Russia the first unit of its first 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants for two years and in November 2014 the two countries signed an agreement whereby Russia was commissioned to build another four units total.

By Sputnik News