The Rosatom State Corporation is in talks with Iran to build another nuclear power plant in that country, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev told journalists on the sidelines of the International Future Technologies Forum in Moscow. “We see the active position of the Iranian government in moving forward further. For our part, we are accelerating this work and are conducting wide-ranging negotiations on the next nuclear energy development platform in Iran,” he said.
The timing will depend on Iran. “Here, as you understand, we can only move at the speed determined by the customer – the government.” The site for the future nuclear power plant has so been determined approximately. As for the debt for the construction of the Bushehr NPP, Likhachev said that had been greatly reduced.
The construction of the Bushehr NPP in southern Iran began in 1975 with West German company, but stopped in 1979 after the start of the Islamic revolution. In 1992, Russia and Iran signed an agreement to continue the construction of the station using Russian VVER-1000 technology. In September 2011, the first power unit was connected to the network, its official transfer to Iran took place in September 2013.
In 2024 the Nuclear Power Production & Development Company of Iran signed an EPC turnkey contract for construction of two more VVER-1000 reactors at Bushehr and preliminary work began at the site in December 2016. In March 2017, construction officially began of the two units, which were then planned to be commissioned in 2024 and 2026. Pouring of first concrete for Bushehr unit 2 took place in November 2019. Commissioning is now expected in 2026 and 2027.
“Of course, debts always exist in the course of project development. That’s the nature of business – we carry out construction work, complete various stages and present the results to the customer,” said Likhachev. “The customer reviews them and then makes a payment decision. In this sense, debt always exists until the facility is delivered. It should be noted that in recent years, this debt has fallen significantly.”
Earlier, Likhachev had said Iran intends to cooperate with Rosatom not only with respect to large NPPs, but also in small-scale nuclear generation. He announced an agreement between Tehran and Moscow for collaboration on both large and small NPPs after talks between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Russian President Vladimir Putin in January. Iran’s ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali told a press conference that Tehran that negotiations are ongoing with Russia to build additional nuclear plants in Iran. He added that a 5,000 MWe nuclear power capacity agreement, including large-scale plants and small modular reactors, had been reached during Pezeshkian’s visit to Moscow.
