TEHRAN, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior member of the
parliament said on Monday that Iran's first home-grown nuclear power plant is
scheduled to be operational in about nine years, local ISNA news agency
reported.
The power plant "is scheduled to come online by the
(Iranian) year of 1395 (March 2016 - March 2017)," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi,
head of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, in a
report issued by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.
A general view shows the Bushehr nuclear
power plant in the Iranian Persian Gulf port of Bushehr, 1,200 kms south
of Tehran, in June 2006. A senior member of the parliament said on Monday
that Iran's first home-grown nuclear power plant is scheduled to be
operational in about nine years. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo
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The
conceptual design of the 360-megawatt power plant, which will be built in
Darkhowein in the southwestern Khuzestan province, started two years ago and was
completed last year, Boroujerdi said.
The detailed design is expected to be completed by
the middle of the Iranian year 1387 (about September 2008), he said, adding that
the technical and equipment design will be finalized by 1390(March 2011 - March
2012).
The Russian contractor company Atomstroiexport is
building Iran's first atomic power plant in the southern city of Bushehr, but
the 360-megawatt plant in Darkhowein would be Iran's first nuclear power plant
using domestic technology.
Boroujerdi welcomed the potential participation of
international companies on the Darkhowein project, saying that Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization has already issued a tender for construction of the power
plant.
"Participation of European companies is especially
welcomed," he said.
Iran has said it wants to build a network of nuclear
power plants with a capacity of 20,000 megawatts by 2020.
MOSCOW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iran's first nuclear power
plant, Bushehr, will not be completed and operational as scheduled by the end of
next year, the Russian media cited the Russian contractor as saying on Thursday.
"The plant's launch cannot be guaranteed before the end of
2008," Sergei Shmatko, president of the Atomstroy export company that is
building the plant, said during a visit to China.
