Preliminary talks have been held with Russian officials on the construction of new nuclear power plants in Iran, Ahmadinejad said in a Tuesday meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
Ahmadinejad further said that the Bushehr nuclear power plant is a symbol of “constructive cooperation” between Tehran and Moscow, adding both sides can develop this model and construct new power plants.
The Iranian President left Tehran for Moscow on Monday morning to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the 2nd summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
The Bushehr nuclear power plant's utmost power for the generation of electricity is 1,000mw.
Iran signed a deal with Russia in 1995, according to which the plant was originally scheduled for completion in 1999. However, the project was repeatedly delayed by the Russian side due to the intense pressure exerted on Moscow by the United States and its western allies. Russia finally completed physical construction of the plant last summer, but the facility still needed one more year to gradually reach full power generation capacity.
On October 26, 2010, Iran started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the initial phase of launching the nuclear reactor.
In 2011 Iran started using 500MW of nuclear-generated electricity, half the nominal capacity of the Bushehr power plant.
Iran held a ceremony in September 2012 to mark the preliminary launch of the Bushehr plant.
The facility operates under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
