Baku, Azerbaijan, April 22
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran announced that it has signed a final protocol with Russia on building two new nuclear power plants.
The Deputy Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization , Behrouz Kamalvandi, said the protocol was signed last month, Iranian IRIB news agency reported on April 22.
He went on to say that Iran is also negotiating with some European and Asian countries on building new nuclear power plants without unveiling any further details.
The head of the AEOI, Ali Akbar Salehi, said on April 13 that Iran has a contract with Russia which was signed in 1992 and it obligates Moscow to build four other nuclear power plants for Tehran.
Salehi said Iran will start construction of its second nuclear plant this year.
"Two years from now, we will start the construction operation of the third plant," he explained, adding that the country will continue building the next one two years after that.
Earlier this month, Russia's Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation said Tehran and Moscow were negotiating the construction of a second unit at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
The Bushehr power plant - a 1,000-megawatt facility, which is operating under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 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 plant for two years.