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Iran to tender construction of 2 nuclear plants by March

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Mashhad, Razavi Khorassan Prov., Nov 28, IRNA
Iran-Nuclear-Parliament
Iran will tender by March 2006 the construction of two more nuclear power plants, a key parliament member said in this northeastern holy city on Sunday.

"In the 1384 budget, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has been given license to set up 20 nuclear plants with a capacity to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said.

Iran has yet to bring its first nuclear power plant on-stream in Bushehr which is built under a one-billion-dollar deal by Russians.

The agreement is a thorn in Washington's side since a US law bans the country's firms from trading with Iran. Hence, US authorities claim that the program might be a front to build an atom bomb, a charge Tehran vigorously denies.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) avoided to report Iran to the UN Security Council at its board of governors' meeting in Vienna Thursday, which Borujerdi welcomed as "a big victory for the country".

"The two-year cooperation of Iran with IAEA inspectors in giving access to certain military centers helped win the international community's trust in peaceful nature of our country's nuclear activities," the MP said.

Boroujerdi cited IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei as saying at the recent IAEA board meeting that "Iran has not breached any rules of the agency".

The MP touched on press reports about a Russian proposal to transfer uranium enrichment to that country under a joint venture with Iran, saying Tehran had not formally received such a proposal.

"Our problem with this proposal is with the geographic location and given the facilities we have established in Natanz, we want uranium enrichment and any investment in this regard be made on the Iranian territory," Borujerdi said.

The MP noted that there would exist no international guarantee for a sustainable supply of nuclear fuel to Iran by foreigners in case Tehran accepted the proposal.

"The operation, enrichment and production of nuclear fuel in the country has been domesticated and no one can take this right from Iran," he said.

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