By IANS
Tehran : Iran looks forward to building its own nuclear power plant by 2012, Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Yusef-pour has said.
The minister told IRNA news agency during an interview Tuesday that Iranian engineers and scientists would be able to acquire expertise in nuclear power plant construction in the next five years.
The Iranian parliament or Majlis has assigned Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) the task of constructing nuclear plants in the country and the energy ministry is ready to help IAEO in this respect, he said.
The IAEO is to tender construction of a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant in Darkhowain, he said.
Darkhowain nuclear power plant is to come on stream and generate electricity by 2016.
A nuclear power plant in Bushehr, about 400 km south of Tehran, being built with Russian technical and financial help is expected to go critical next year. Russia has already dispatched the first consignment of fuel for the plant.