“The conclusion of an agreement with Russia on the construction of two power plants is in its final stages,” Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday, expressing hope that the deal will get off the ground in the near future.
The AEOI head said that the construction of one of the nuclear power plants will start in the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2014), while work to build the other one will get underway in two years’ time.
According to Salehi, each nuclear power plant will have the capacity to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
Russia completed the construction of Iran’s first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr, which had begun in 1975 by German companies, but was halted following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) became officially operational and was connected to Iran’s national grid in September 2011, generating electricity at a 40-percent capacity.
The 1,000-megawatt plant, 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.
