Iran’s atomic agency is planning to construct two more nuclear plants, a top official at the agency said in a conference in Tehran on Saturday.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran.- Photo: AP

“The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has put construction of the second and third (nuclear) power stations on its agenda due to the government’s programs and the emphasis laid by the President (Hassan Rouhani),” said AEOI Deputy Chief Hossein Khalfi, according to the Iranian Fars news agency.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 25th Exhibition of Iran’s Nuclear Industry Achievements in Tehran on Saturday, Khalfi announced that Iran’s nuclear program was in a good place regarding the construction of power plants. “We have launched the Bushehr nuclear power plant and handed it over to the country’s experts in the past two months,” he added.

“Once the control of the Bushehr nuclear power plant is delivered to the Iranian experts in the next two months, the plant will start the industrial operations phase (meaning a full capacity operation),” he added.

Construction of the 1,000-megawatt plant was begun in 1975 by German company Siemens, and Russian engineers took over in the 1990s.

The report further stated that the head of the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation, Sergey Kiriyenko, said that Iran’s Bushehr plant is ready to be fully transferred to the AEOI. “The state company (Rosatom) will soon sign the documents to transfer the full operational control of the Bushehr nuclear power plant to Iran,” he said.

Kiriyenjo emphasized, according to the Fars News report, that Bushehr is currently operating at full capacity and the preparation for the transfer to Iranian officials is in its final stages.

AEOI head, Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iranian nuclear experts will receive temporary but complete control of the Bushehr power plant on Saturday afternoon, and that permanent operational control would be finalized after 7,000 hours of operation.

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