Iran Pushes Ahead on Nuclear Power Plants With Search for Sites
TEHRAN — Iran took a step toward building more nuclear power plants, selecting six Iranian companies to find sites for the projects.
BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty
The reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, in southern Iran in February 2006.
"These companies have 13 months to identify suitable locations for the construction of nuclear plants," the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ahmad Fayaz Bakhsh, was cited as saying yesterday by the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency. He didn't say how many plants will be built.
Sixty-two companies, four of them foreign, bid for a contract to find the sites, Mr. Fayaz Bakhsh said. Two are Russian, one is Swiss, and another is Canadian, he said.
Iran's first nuclear power plant, a 1,000-megawatt reactor in Bushehr, is scheduled to start up next year and will use fuel supplied by Russia. The government in Tehran has said that it plans to build 19 nuclear power stations.
America and its allies suspect Iran is developing nuclear energy to create weapons, an allegation the country's leaders deny.
