Iran said Sunday it was planning to build more nuclear power plants with Russian help. "We have contracts with Russia to build more nuclear reactors. No number has been specified but definitely our contract with Russia is to build more than one nuclear power plant," Asadollah Sabouri, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran in charge of nuclear power plants, told reporters Sunday. Sabouri also revealed that at least two European countries had expressed interest in the projects, although he refused to name them. "They have given us documents expressing their readiness to join the projects. We welcome them. My message to the Europeans is that we have to pass the paperwork stage and go for binding contracts as soon as possible," he said. Sabouri said Iran's second nuclear reactor will be built in Bushehr, a coastal town in southern Iran where Russia is already building Iran's first nuclear power plant. Iran's Nuclear Energy Council has decided that the country has to produce 7,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power plants by 2021 to meet Iran's increasing electricity demands. "By 2021, Iran's electricity consumption will reach 56,000 megawatts and we need to have capability to produce 70,000 megawatts of electricity. Some 7,000 megawatts, about 10 percent, will be met through nuclear power plants," Sabouri said. He said Iran was already studying other sites in Iran for other possible reactors.
