Iran to build more nuke power plants - atomic chief
Date: 19-Sep-02
Country: IRAN
The new projects would be in addition to a nuclear plant at Bushehr on the Gulf coast being built with Russian help, a project that has infuriated Washington, which says Iran is part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iraq and North Korea.
"Iran has a long-term plan to build more nuclear power plants to expand its capacity by 6,000 MW by the next two decades," the Iran newspaper quoted the head of Iran's Atomic Enery Organisation, Gholamreza Aghazadeh as saying.
Russia approved plans in July to construct up to six more nuclear power reactors and expand conventional power stations in the Islamic Republic. Iran, the second biggest oil producer in OPEC and with the second biggest gas reserves in the world, says the nuclear plant is for purely civilian power generation.
"Iran has always condemned access to weapons of mass destruction on the part of any country," Aghazadeh said on Monday in a speech at the annual conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.
"Iran has always emphasised the full implementation of the Nuclear Non-Prolifration Treaty by all IAEA members and criticised those countries which have refused to join it," he said.
Aghazadeh welcomed cooperation by other countries in building nuclear reactors in Iran and called for greater IAEA participation to ensure plant safety.
The United States has heaped criticism on the Bushehr plans despite Russian assurances to Washington that its cooperation with Tehran would not lead to nuclear proliferation problems.
Iran says Bushehr will be subject to strict monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
