BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 21. Iran intends to benefit from all peaceful areas of the nuclear industry, including energy, medicine, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and innovation, the 1st Vice President of Iran Mohammad Mokhber said, Trend reports.
He made the remark at the meeting regarding the activity of Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Tehran on June 21, 2023.
The vice president noted that Iran’s current government (which has been in power since August 2021) regulates various programs for the use of the nuclear industry in various fields.
Mokhber added that one of these programs is the generation of 20,000 megawatt-hours of electricity in the country through nuclear power plants.
According to him, in the next year's state budget (March 20, 2024, through March 20, 2025), funds should be provided for the construction of nuclear power plants with a generation capacity of 20,000 megawatt-hours of electricity.
Mohammad Eslami, the Vice President of Iran and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Organization, who participated in the meeting, noted that the program of launching and developing of new NPPs in the country until 2041 is in the spotlight.
Eslami said that the process of identifying a large number of locations and technical possibilities for the construction of new NPPs in the country has started.
The 1st unit of the Bushehr NPP was launched in 2011 by the Russian Atomic Company (ROSATOM). In 2013, the development of the unit was handed over by ROSATOM to an Iranian company. The unit has been generating 1,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year since 2013.
At present, the power generation capacity of Iran's all power plants including, thermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, renewable, etc. is approximately 91,000 megawatt-hours. Of this, 82 percent are accounted for by the country’s thermal power plants.
Although Iran claims that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, it is requested to provide facts and guarantees to prove it at the world level.
Recently, discussions between Iran and the US have been held indirectly through various mediators, including Oman.
On June 13, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani noted that he had a discussion with his counterparts from 3 European countries about Iran's nuclear program.
In the discussions, Iran is mainly trying to achieve the abolition of sanctions imposed by the US and Western countries, the removal of its funds frozen in foreign countries, and the abolition of the restriction on the export of crude oil. In return, the US and Western countries want Iran not to acquire an atomic bomb, to keep its nuclear program under control, and to reduce the level of uranium enrichment.
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