Iran seeks Japan's cooperation in building new nuclear plants

An Iranian deputy foreign minister voiced Tehran's pleasure in utilizing Japan’s civil nuclear technologies, and hoped for nuclear cooperation with Tokyo in the near future. “Japan obtains one of the most advanced technologies in nuclear energy and exports them abroad,” said Seyed Abbas Araqchi in an interview with the Japanese NHK public broadcaster. “There are good prospects for Iran and Japan to cooperate in the construction of (Iran’s new) nuclear power plants,” the Iranian official added. Araqchi emphasized that nuclear cooperation would become one of the central themes in bilateral contacts between Tokyo and Tehran in the near future. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 Japan suspended export of its nuclear technologies, but the current Japanese government led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been making efforts to resume it. The Iranian authorities consider different variants for the development of their country’s nuclear power, including attraction of the world’s leading producers in this sphere. In an interview with channel 1 of state TV late on December, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi announced that negotiations with the Russian officials for construction of four new nuclear reactors are underway. Early in December, the AEOI asked the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to allocate a share in the next year's budget to the construction of new nuclear power plants in the country. Salehi said at the time that the country already has a perspective for the development of its nuclear activities and the parliament has instructed the AEOI to provide necessary facilities or prepare the ground for constructing nuclear power plants generating 20,000 megawatts of electricity. On November 13, the AEOI head expressed hope that ground will be broken for the nation’s second nuclear power plant in early 2014 with Russian cooperation. The Islamic Republic officially took over from Russia the first unit of its first 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr for two years on September 23. The initial construction of the Bushehr facility began in 1975 by German companies, but the work was halted following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran and Russia reached an agreement in 1995 to complete the power plant, but the completion of the project was delayed several times due to a number of technical and financial problems until 2011.