Special to WorldTribune.com

The head of Iran’s nuclear energy agency said China will likely build two new nuclear power plants in Iran and that construction on two additional plants by Russia is set to start this year.

“We are in talks with the Chinese over the construction of two 100-MW power plants,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

Salehi said Iran hoped to have the four nuclear plants up and running in the next 3 to 4 years.

Teheran has already signed a contract with Russia for two power plants and Salehi said that “God willing, the construction work will start this year.”

In April, AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi announced a deal with China to build several nuclear plants. “The Islamic Republic of Iran plans to produce at least 190,000 SWUs (Separative Work Units) of nuclear fuel at the industrial scale, while we also think about 1,000,000 SWUs, which will be needed to fuel 5 power plants like Bushehr.”

Kamalvandi added that “this is the reason why we have inked an agreement with the Russians to construct two nuclear power plants for the generation of electricity while the Chinese will also enter this arena soon.”

Salehi also said that world powers “failed to materialize all their objectives, at least in technical aspects,” in the recently concluded P5+1 nuclear negotiations.

  AEOI, Ali Akbar Salehi, China, Russia to build 2 new nuclear reactors each in Iran, WorldTribune.com