The Islamic Republic will
“soon” issue a tender for
bids to build 10 additional nuclear power plants in Iran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced last Thursday.
It wasn’t explained why the foreign minister was making the announcement, when such contracts are in the province of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Mottaki did not give any date for the tender. Iranian officials have spoken in the past of plans for such tenders, but have never been more specific than to say no bidding would be conducted until after the completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Russia is eager to win more nuclear reactor contracts in Iran. Iran appears to be trying to hold out the prospect of more contracts to encourage Moscow to speed completion at Bushehr.
But many in the leadership have spoken with disgust of Russia’s handling of the Bushehr contract and there is clearly opposition to giving Russia any more nuclear contracts.
On the other hand, until the nuclear issue is resolved with the International Atomic Energy Agency, it isn’t clear that any other country would be willing to build a power plant in Iran.
The Islamic Republic initially opposed nuclear power as one the Shah’s useless “prestige” projects. In the 1990s, it adopted a policy of completing the 1,000-megawatt Bushehr plant since it was 85 percent complete at the time of the revolution. Early in this decade, it proclaimed a policy of building 6,000 megawatts of nuclear generating capacity. After a Russian scientist said that was too little to justify the investment in a nuclear fuel cycle industry, the Majlis swiftly declared it to be policy to build 20,000 megawatts of nuclear generating capacity.
