Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 14
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Deputy Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behruz Kamalvandi, while commenting on the achievements of the Lausanne framework agreement said, China would cooperate with the Islamic Republic on building new nuclear power plants, and Iran will maintain industrial uranium enrichment capacity of 190,000 SWUs.
Iran and the 5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) reached a framework agreement after eight days of intensive talks in Lausanne over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program. The sides have decided to strike a comprehensive deal by July 1, which would on one hand limit Tehran's nuclear activities, and on the other remove international sanctions on Iran.
Kamalvandi further stated that Iran plans to increase its uranium enrichment capacity to one million SWUs, which will include five nuclear power plants.
Iran has already reached agreement with Russia on building two new nuclear power plants and China also will take part in the issue, Kamalvandi said, Iran's Mehr news agency reported April 14.
Other countries also will cooperate with Iran on constructing nuclear power plants, Kamalvandi said without mentioning the countries' name.
It was earlier announced that the two power plants' construction would kick off in the current Iranian fiscal year (ending March 21, 2016). The power plants will be constructed in the southern city of Bushehr.
Tehran and Moscow also recently announced that they would jointly produce fuel for Iran's nuclear power plants. Russia and Iran signed an agreement on March 2 to supply services to the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the head of Rosenergoatom said. According to Rosenergoatom Chief Executive Officer Evgeny Romanov, the firm agreed on a five-year cooperation deal with Iran.
Russian Company Rosatom and AEOI signed a treaty in 2014 to build the second and third units of the Bushehr Power Plant.
Iran's only nuclear power plant -Bushehr, which was inaugurated in September 2013, has a capacity of producing 1000 megawatts of electricity. The power plant is scheduled to produce up to 5 billion megawatt hours of electricity per year, which is about 2 percent of country's total electricity production.
Supplying the fuel for Bushehr NPP is guaranteed by Russia for 10 years. Russia delivered 82 tons of nuclear fuel in 2008 and 30 more tons in May 2011 to Iran. This amount meets the Bushehr NPP's fuel needs for four years.
Edited by CN
Follow the author on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh