Iran proposes nuclear power plan with Hungary: Salehi

Iran’s top nuclear official says Tehran has offered a joint nuclear power project with Hungary to build small reactors and sell them to Asian and African countries.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said at a Thursday conference in Budapest that Tehran proposed the pilot project with Hungary to design and develop a 25-megawatt reactor as well as a reactor of up to 100 megawatts, Reuters reported.

He also noted that the small reactors would be marketable across Asia and Africa as they would be affordable and need less cooling water.

“One particular project that I suggested was to see if we can… together design a small reactor of 25 megawatts,” said Salehi, adding, “It was received well and we hope that we can start this project, just on paper.”

The project “requires a lot of scientific work to come up with such a design, certainly a number of years of hard work. We want to see if we can do this,” the AEOI head also noted.

Salehi made the remarks during an official visit to Budapest, where he met with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto earlier on Thursday.

Salehi further referred to a nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries last year and said, “We intend to fully utilize all commercial and technical opportunities, including the pursuit of peaceful nuclear activities, emanating from this deal.”

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany started to implement the agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on January 16.

After JCPOA went into effect, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US were lifted. Iran, in return, has put some limitations on its nuclear activities. The nuclear agreement was signed on July 14, 2015 following two and a half years of intensive talks.