BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 18. Iran and Russia will additionally cooperate on small and large nuclear power plants, the executive director of Russia's Rosatom Alexei Likhachev said, Trend reports.
According to him, the Iranian side intends to develop cooperation with Russia in the construction and commissioning of small and huge nuclear power plants.
Likhachev noted that negotiations on the construction of another huge nuclear power plant in Iran will start soon.
The official emphasized that there is a need to adjust agreements between the two states in the field of the construction of small nuclear power plants. The Russian side has sent a relevant protocol to the Iranian side.
He added that the first unit of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is currently in operation. Despite sanctions and pressure, the construction of the second and third units of Bushehr NPP continues.
In 2011, the first unit of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant began operations. An Iranian company took over the unit's operation from Rosatom in 2013. Since 2013, this unit has generated the maximum amount of electricity, 1,000 megawatt hours of electricity. Over the past 10 years, electricity generation at Bushehr NPP has exceeded 65 billion kilowatt-hours.
To note, construction of Bushehr NPP Blocks 2 and 3 began in 2017 on an area of 50 ha. Once operational, each of these units can generate 1,057 megawatts of electricity. The commissioning of these two units will save 10 million barrels of crude oil or 1.6 bcm of gas per year and prevent the release of 7 million tons of polluting gases into the environment.
The construction work on Bushehr NPP Units 2 and 3 is presently 17 percent complete.