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Russia To Speed Construction Of Iranian Nuclear Plant
MOSCOW, April 16 (News Agencies) - Russia's atomic energy minister vowed Monday to speed up construction of a controversial nuclear reactor in Iran that is bitterly opposed by the United States.
"If we are lagging behind schedule in the construction of the first unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, we will catch up," Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Russia was commissioned to build the Bushehr's first nuclear reactor in January 1994, after German firm Siemens pulled out of an earlier contract following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Washington argues that Iran, rich in oil, has no need to build a nuclear reactor and was using the project as a pretext to develop its forbidden nuclear defense program.
The first Bushehr reactor is scheduled to become operational within the next 12 months, Tehran confirmed recently.
Under the original contract, its construction will earn Russia $800 million to $1 billion, but its completion has been delayed by at least two years.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami raised the issue of Bushehr's slow construction during a four-day visit to Russia last month, as well as the possibility that he was interested in two additional nuclear reactors.
However, Rumyantsev said Monday that there was no firm agreement for new reactors. "There are no documents firmly confirming this yet," he said.
Rumyantsev added that Moscow was also focusing on stepping up cooperation in the nuclear energy sphere with India, where Russia is constructing an atomic power station at Kudankulam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
"India is Russia's strategic partner," ITAR-TASS quoted Rumyantsev as saying.
"We will do everything to develop our strategic might" on the world's nuclear energy market, he added.
Touching on one of the more controversial projects by his predecessor Yevgeny Adamov, Rumyantsev also vowed to ram through parliament a law allowing Russia to earn money by storing other countries' nuclear waste products.
The project has been furiously opposed by environmental groups like Greenpeace, and has been passed through one of its required three readings in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.
Rumyantsev said a second reading might be held on Wednesday, adding that Russia stood to gain some $21 billion from the deal.
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