The head of Iran\’s Atomic Energy Organization said the country is to build a new nuclear power plant, alongside its sole existing one in the southern city of Bushehr, by early 2014.
"Iran will build a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr next year," state television quoted Fereydoon Abbasi Davani as saying on Sunday. He was referring to the Iranian calendar year running from March 2013 to March 2014.
During a speech at a university in Tehran, Abbasi Davani said Iran does not have experience in building reactors and will therefore have to "finish planning the construction and use external elements
The current Bushehr nuclear plant was started by German engineers in the 1970s, before Iran\’s Islamic revolution, and was completed by Russia, which continues to help keeping it running and provides fuel for it.
In addition, Iran has a research reactor operating in Tehran that is used to make medical isotopes for patients with cancer and other illnesses.
Abbasi Davani also said Tehran has "no reason" to suspend its enrichment of uranium to 20%, one of the key demands of world powers engaging Iran in talks, the head of its Atomic Energy Organization said.
"We have no reason to cede on 20%, because we produce only as much of the 20% fuel as we need. No more, no less," Fereydoon Abbasi Davani was quoted as saying late Saturday by the ISNA and Mehr news agencies.
The issue of Iran\’s enrichment of uranium to 20%, and its stockpile of that uranium, were at the center of talks on Wednesday and Thursday in Baghdad between Iran and six world powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany).
Those talks neared collapse when the powers, known as the P5+1, demanded Iran give up that activity and its stockpile in exchange for some inducements such as aircraft parts for its dilapidated commercial fleet and technical assistance in nuclear energy.
Iran, which is suffering under Western sanctions, said the inducements were far too little and countered with a demand that the P5+1 declare that it has a right to enrich uranium.
With that impasse, which Abbasi Davani termed "predictable," the talks teetered on failure and were saved only by last-minute wrangling that agreed to give negotiations another shot in Moscow on June 18-19.
Abbasi Davani was quoted as saying that Iran had now joined the small group of countries "that can produce fuel for others."
He added: "It is better that others engage us about providing (them) with fuel, not that they (the West) demand we shut down our fuel production."
According to the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tehran has produced 145.6 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium, of which nearly a third has been converted into fuel for its research reactor.
Iran has also produced more than six tons of uranium enriched to 3.5%, part of which was processed further to make the 20% stock.
Uranium enriched to 90% or above is used for military ends, to make nuclear warheads. Twenty% uranium is considered just a few steps short of that level.