Iran

Spokesman: Iran Negotiating with China on Construction of Small Reactors

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Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi announced that the AEOI is negotiating with China over the construction of small nuclear reactors.

“Talks are underway between Iran and China on building ACP100 small reactors and whenever we achieve results we will publicize it,” Kamalvandi, also an AEOI deputy chief, told reporters on Tuesday.

He expressed the hope that Tehran and Beijing would soon sign an agreement in this regard soon.

China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has designed a multi-purpose small modular reactor, the ACP100. This is being developed by China New Energy Company. It has passive safety features, notably decay heat removal, and will be installed underground. It has 57 fuel assemblies 2.15m tall and integral steam generators (287°C), so that the whole steam supply system is produced and shipped a single reactor module.

In relevant remarks in April, Kamalvandi announced the country’s plans to build small nuclear power plants on the rims of the Persian Gulf to desalinate water.

“The AEOI plans to build small power plants in the Southern parts of the country for desalination purposes. Construction of such power plants are on the agenda and will be materialized in the next few years,” Kamalvandi said.

Stressing that the AEOI seriously pursues building of large nuclear power plants too, he said, “At present, the world is moving towards the construction of small power plants since they can have different applications.”

Kamalvandi said that two or three small nuclear power plants can also be built beside each other and form a mid-size power plant.

Kamalvandi announced in December that the AEOI had started building two new nuclear power plants in the Southern province of Bushehr.

“We have entered the executive phase of the construction of these two nuclear power plants based on the contract signed between Tehran and Moscow in March to construct the plants,” he said.

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