Russia to build 8 more n-reactors in Iran

Russia is set to build another eight nuclear power plants (NPP) in Iran, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview on Friday.

These new reactors come on the heels of the 2013 delivery of the first Russian nuclear facility in the coastal city of Bushehr, in the Persian Gulf, Putin said during the interview published on Friday by Azerbaijani state news agency AzerTac.

"Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr, was built on the basis of Russian technologies," EFE news quoted Putin as saying.

"Plans for the construction of 8 more nuclear power units by Russian specialists in Iran have been agreed," he added.

Putin is set to travel to Baku on August 8 to participate in a trilateral summit with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Putin's visit to the Azerbaijani capital will include a bilateral meeting with his Iranian counterpart, where they will discuss in detail their joint work in the field of peaceful nuclear energy.

Russia, added Putin, "will further assist our Iranian partners in implementing the Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program, including the processing of enriched uranium and the conversion of facilities to produce stable isotopes."

The Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation, Rosatom, has already begun work on Bushehr's second NPP, which is expected to have a similar 1,000 mW output.

The Bushehr NPP began construction during the 70s, but was halted after the triumph of the Iranian Islamic Revolution(1979); work was not resumed until February 1998 after an agreement was reached with the Russian Federation.

Although its construction dragged on for years due to Western opposition, the NPP was finally completed in August 2010 and became fully operational in June 2013.

--IANS

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