'Despite being in the Western influence sphere, it was Russia that helped realize Iran's ambitions for steel company which was launched in Isfahan,' Salehi told reporters in a ceremony held today to start executive construction operation of 2 nuclear plants.
'The required area for the second and third units of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant has been leveled and excavated,' he added.
'The second unit of the plant will become operational seven years later and the third unit also will be launched two years after the first one,' he said.
Meanwhile, Director General of Russian Nuclear power company 'Rosatom' Alexey Likhachev said that 20 percent of the whole project and 80 percent of construction operation of unit 2 will be accomplished by Iran.
He pointed to the executive construction operation as an important event which started work on the eve of the Iranian and Russian presidents' upcoming meeting.
Likhachev also referred to first block of Bushehr nuclear plant as symbol of cooperation between Iran and Russia.
Implementation of Iran nuclear deal also known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has paved the way for building the two mentioned units in Bushehr Power Plant, Salehi said.
The two units are supposed to be constructed within the framework of safeguard agreements with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as well, he said.
The agreement was signed three years ago in Moscow, he added.
Salehi had previously mentioned that the second and third units of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant have1,057 MW capacities each.
The operation is reported to be worth about $10 billion.
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Publish Date: 31 October 2017 - 16:59
Bushehr, Oct 31, IRNA – Bushehr nuclear plants are sign of strategic cooperation between Iran and Russia, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday.