Director of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, told a news conference in Tehran on Saturday Iranian experts are to build a 360-megawatt light-water nuclear power plant.
He further said finances for the plant to be built in the south-western town of Darkhovin are envisioned in the budget and that construction will take between six and seven years to complete.
Recalling an eralier decision to generate some 20,000 megawatts of nuclear electricity in 20 years, the Iranian nuclear chief said to that end projects will be put to tender in 2006.
On Bushehr nuclear power plant Russia is helping build in the south, he said the project is 90 percent complete and is expected to be inaugurated in 2006.
During an upcoming visit to Iran by the Director of the Russian Nuclear Agencythe exact timing of the inauguration will be decided, he said.
Aghazadeh added the decision to produce nuclear fuel within national borders is final and that despite media reports Moscow has not put forth any official proposal on conducting enrichment of uranium for Iran on Russian soil.
He rejected speculations that possession of enrichment technology puts a country on track to bomb-building and said Iran remains determined to build confidence which is a two-way street and should be reciprocated.