The president of Iran’s nuclear energy agency said officials in that country have signed an agreement with Russia for construction of at least eight nuclear power plants in Iran. Mohammad Eslami, president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), confirmed the deal on June 9 during a visit by members of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee to the AEOI headquarters in Tehran, and to the Tehran Research Reactor.
Eslami, according to Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said at least four of the new units would be build in Bushehr, site of Iran’s only currently operating nuclear power plant. The 1,000-MW Bushehr facility was completed by Russia in May 2011. The power station has been central to the country’s civilian nuclear energy program, and has long been operated with cooperation from Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear agency.
“We have a contract with Russia to construct eight nuclear power plants in Iran, four of which will be in Bushehr,” Rezaei quoted Eslami as saying. The AEOI in February of last year said construction had commenced on the 5,000-MW Iran-Hormoz plant, which will have four 1,250-MW reactors, near the cities of Minab and Sirik in the southern coastal province of Hormozgan. The government at that time said the project would require a $15-billion investment.
Funding from Russia
Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad in April had said Russia would fund the construction of a new nuclear plant in Iran. Paknejad in a statement said the two countries would join on “the construction of new nuclear energy facilities and the completion of phases two and three of the Bushehr power plant using Moscow’s credit line.”
Iran’s parliament on May 21 ratified a 20-year strategic partnership with Russia. Reports said the deal would expand economic and military cooperation between the two countries.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a recent interview about nuclear power with the Financial Times said Iran is his “biggest preoccupation” when it comes to construction of new nuclear power stations. Grossi, in a June 9 interview with The Jerusalem Post , said he’s been told by Iranian officials that strikes by Israel on Iran’s nuclear assets would push Iran to create nuclear weapons.