Russia, Iran finish negotiation on n-plant

Moscow and Tehran have finished negotiation on building new sections of Iranian nuclear power plants, Russian state nuclear power corporation Rosatom said Wednesday.

"In general, coordinative paperwork is completed on building more Russia-designed sections of Iran's southern Bushehr nuclear power plant," Xinhua quoted Rosatom as saying in a statement.

The two countries struck the deal during the recent visit of the Rosatom's deputy chief Nikolai Spassky to Teheran.

Earlier this week, Rosatom's CEO Sergei Kiriyenko said a contract will be signed till the year-end on the construction of two units at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Iran's first nuclear power plant near the city of Bushehr was first constructed in 1975 by several German companies. However, the work was halted when the US imposed an embargo on hi-tech supplies to Iran after the 1979 revolution.

Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the construction in 1998, while the remaining construction was postponed several times due to mounting technical and financial challenges and pressure from Washington.

Russia has pledged to safeguard the site, and prevent spent nuclear fuel from being reprocessed into weapons-grade materials.