Iran eyeing development of small reactors

Salehi has been quoted by Iran’s local media as saying that this is a new strategy that could decrease the costs and in turn increase the profits over the utilization of nuclear energy.

“During the recent talks with US negotiators in Geneva, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Washington is also looking into this strategy,” the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has been quoted as saying by the Persian-language newspaper Ta’adol.

Salehi said the construction of a 1600-megawatt reactor requires an investment of $15 billion. “This is while the construction of small reactors with a capacity of 50-100 megawatts requires much less investment,” he said.

Salehi accompanied Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif in Iran’s high-profile nuclear negotiations in Geneva on Sunday and Monday in which US Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Moniz had also participated.

It was for the first time that Iran and the US were bringing a nuclear chief and an energy secretary into Iran nuclear talks.  Not much has come out on the exact topics of discussions but Iran and the US have already emphasized that some positive steps had been taken during the course of the talks.

Salehi told Iran’s media on Thursday that “very useful results” had been obtained during technical negotiations with the US team.  He also said some “long steps” had been taken over some key technical issues that had previously hit a deadlock in the course of Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 group of countries.

Iran and the US will meet again in the Swiss city of Montreux next week to continue discussions that are meant to remove the remaining disputes on the way of a final agreement over the Iranian nuclear energy program.