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Update: Iran begins construction of nuclear power plant

Xinhua, September 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Iran on Saturday began the construction of a nuclear power plant, with Russian help, in the southern port city of Bushehr, official IRNA news agency reported.

The new power plant is part of a plan to develop Iran's first commercial nuclear reactor Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the report said.

"We are opening a new page in the trend of our peaceful industrial nuclear activities," Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said at a ceremony attended by senior Iranian and Russian officials, according to local Press TV.

He added that the project will be carried out within the framework of the Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and in line with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iran's First Vice President Is'haq Jahangiri and head of Russia's Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Sergey Vladilenovich Kiriyenko attended the ceremony.

"Meeting energy needs is the prelude to economic development," said Jahangiri, adding that efforts must be made toward preservation of fossil fuels for the next generations.

On Sept. 1, Salehi said Iran and Russia had agreed to build two nuclear power plants in Bushehr.

The construction, with an estimated cost of 10 billion U.S. dollars, would be completed in 10 years, he said.

By building these two power plants, Iran would save 22 million barrels of oil per year, Salehi added.

But he did not detail the specifications of the two projects.

According to IRNA, the construction of the other power plant will be launched in 2018.

On Saturday, Salehi said that the construction of the new power plants will help the country prevent the emission of 14 million tons of greenhouse gas each year, Tasnim news agency reported.

The plants will also be equipped with water desalination facilities to produce 200 million cubic meters of fresh water per annum, Salehi was quoted as saying.

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant was first constructed in 1975 by German companies. However, the work was halted when the United States imposed an embargo on high-tech supplies to Iran after its 1979 revolution, in which the U.S.-backed monarch was overthrown. Russia signed a contract with Iran in 1998 to complete the construction. Endit