MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry believes new nuclear power units in Iran may be built in the distant future, Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev told a news conference in Moscow on Friday.
"We can only speak of the construction of new nuclear power units in Iran in hypothetical terms," he said.
The issue of building a second power unit at Bushehr requires technical studies. "Russia is building one unit in Iran today and there have been no agreements on the construction of another so far," he said.
In autumn, Russia adopted a large-scale program for economic and commercial cooperation with Iran under which several nuclear power units should be built.
Regarding the possibility of building one more power unit at Bushehr, Rumyantsev expressed the opinion that "it would be more expedient to build a new power unit at a new site instead of adding to a facility left by the German Siemens company, which initially planned two units."
In his opinion, it would have been better to build two power units at Bushehr simultaneously. The cost of building one stands at USD1-1.2bn, he said.
Russia is building the first power unit in Bushehr under an intergovernmental agreement. The price of the contract is no less than USD1bn.