Azernews.Az

Iran will start negotiations with western countries to cooperate in construction of nuclear power plants, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said.

If the western countries provide the needed investment, Iran will have no limitation for simultaneous construction of seven or eight nuclear power plants, Kamalvandi said, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.

He further said that Iran has signed some 30 document with the Russian side in the last two years for construction of new nuclear power plants.

Groundbreaking ceremony of the two new nuclear power plants will be held in coming weeks, however construction of the first power plant will take about two years and then the second plant will be constructed, Kamalvandi said.

The new power plants will be similar to the Bushehr nuclear power plant, with some new specifications, Kamalvandi said, without unveiling any further details.

He also added that after building fifth, sixth and seventh power plants Iran plans to construct new power plants with its own experts.

Earlier Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the AEOI said that construction of two 1000-MW power plants will start soon.

“We will build two other small power plants too in cooperation with China,” Salehi said, adding that certain European and Asian states, including China, Japan and South Korea, are ready for cooperation.

Iran's only nuclear power plant –Bushehr, which was inaugurated in September 2013, has a capacity of producing 1000 megawatts of electricity. The power plant is scheduled to produce up to 5 billion megawatt hours of electricity per year, which is about two percent of country's total electricity production.

Supplying the fuel for Bushehr NPP is guaranteed by Russia for 10 years. Russia delivered 82 tons of nuclear fuel in 2008 and 30 more tons in May 2011 to Iran. This amount meets the Bushehr NPP's fuel needs for four years.

---

Follow us on Twitter: @AzerNewsAz