Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) has begun construction of the country’s first indigenous nuclear power plant, Energy Minister Parviz Fattah announced.
“Based on studies conducted by the organization and following talks with the ministry, IAEO has decided to build its first nuclear plant in the Darkhovein region of western Khuzestan province,“ the minister told MNA on Saturday.
A Russian contractor is building Iran’s first atomic power plant in the southern city of Bushehr but the 360 megawatt plant in Darkhovein would be the first using domestic technology.
“Preliminary works have been conducted and construction operations have been started by the organization,“ Fattah added.
He recalled that the 2007-2008 Budget Law had obliged the government to identify the location of the nuclear plant.
He, however, noted that the ministry is not responsible for building the plant but it should be constructed in an area which needs electricity.
Also, power transmission and distribution networks have to be build whereas nuclear plant needs water for its operation, he explained.
“The ministry is responsible for providing all the facilities,“ Fattah underlined.
An MP said on Monday that the power plant is scheduled to go on stream in about nine years, citing a report by the IAEO.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Majlis Foreign Affairs and Security Commission, said the conceptual design of the plant was completed last year and now the technical design is underway and is expected to be over next year.
“According to the report, the plant will come on stream by the (Iranian year) 1395 (2016-2017),“ he was quoted as saying by ISNA.

An estimated 4.5 million handsets were smuggled into the country last year.

Reduction of import tariff on cellphone handsets to 25 percent would force economically unviable local producers to withdraw from the market, observed head of Majlis Telecommunication Committee Ramezanali Sadeqzadeh.
Article One Commission approved the 25 percent duty on handsets imported in form of C.B.U. (completely built unit).
He told Iran Daily that the move would lead other Iranian cellphone manufactures to not only cut the price of their products but also improve quality and update technology, adding cellphone smuggling would also become less attractive.
The lawmaker recalled that the increase in import duties on handsets from 6 percent to 60 percent last year caused the price of mobile phone handset to go up by an average one million rials.
Sadeqzadeh said that the inexpert decision was aimed at supporting local producers, whereas it has led to an increase in smuggling.
“About six million handsets were imported during the period, of which 4.5 million were smuggled,“ he noted.
The lawmaker noted that in a meeting with Majlis representatives and the Industries and Mine Minister Mohammad Ali Akbar Mehrabian, domestic manufactures expressed satisfaction
over the reduction of import tariff as well.
He stated that Iranian producers should supply a new model to the market once every few month and use state-of-the-art technology to be able to compete with foreign rivals.
“If we acquire cellphone handset production technology successfully, we can not only meet domestic demands, but also gain a foothold in regional market and export our products,“ he concluded.

Central Bank of Iran governor has announced that Iran has effectively severed all ties with the US dollar in its to hard currency reserves.
“Iran’s hard currency reserves have been converted from the greenback to euro,“ Tahmasb Mazaheri told ISNA Friday.
“Most of Iran’s international trade is in euro and consequently, CBI quotes base prices in euro.“
He added that exporters are facing no problem in conducting transactions in euros.
Mazaheri elaborated that merchants exporting commodities to Europe mostly use euros.
Other businessmen exporting to non-European countries trade in currency of that state and then convert the currencies in euros.
The top banker told the US magazine Emerging Market earlier in October that CBI had almost completed the groundbreaking initiative to move its external reserves away from the US dollar.
“We have done our best to implement this diversification in both our reserves, instruments and forex reserves in order to get the maximum from our holdings,“ he said.
The move was taken due to concerns about weakening of the greenback against the euro although political reasons cannot be ruled out.
Value of the US dollar has dropped by between 30 and 35 percent compared to other currencies since 2004 thus making transactions in dollar uneconomical.

Royal Dutch Shell has again delayed a decision on whether to press ahead with investments in Iran, as Europe’s largest oil and gas company weighs up the increasing costs of the project and political opposition in the United States.
The Anglo-Dutch giant will not now decide on a $10 billion project to exploit part of Iran’s vast South Pars gas field for at least a year, telegraph.co.uk said.
Shell risks seeing rivals also knocking on Tehran’s door being given first refusal on some of the many lucrative contracts instead.
Tehran has requested that companies interested in South Pars and other energy projects submit plans by June, although some analysts believe the deadline may be extended.
In January, Shell and Spain’s Repsol signed a preliminary deal with Tehran jointly to develop two phases of South Pars. At the time, Shell said it might be a year away from knowing whether to proceed, a timescale that Shell chief executive Jeroen van de Veer repeated six months later.
Now, company insiders say Shell is ’still 12 months away from a decision’.
Drawing up a final investment plan, when labor and equipment costs in the industry are soaring, was proving more difficult than expected, said a source.
Shell also risks upsetting Washington, where the Bush administration is putting pressure on companies not to do business with Iran because of its nuclear program.
Pushing back the decision until the end of 2008 has the advantage of it being after the US elections in November, when a new president might tone down the rhetoric against Tehran.
However analysts said it would be wrong to think that Iran’s June deadline was not a firm commitment. On December 9, Gholamhossein Nozari, Iran’s oil minister, warned companies that they risked missing out on contracts. “If other companies that like to invest in oil and gas hesitate, they will lose opportunities,“ he said.
The comment followed the signing of a two billion dollar contract between Iran and Sinopec of China to develop the Yadavaran oilfield. Russia’s Gazprom is understood to be holding talks with Tehran about investing in South Pars and is unlikely to be influenced by any complaints from Washington.

Proposed Nabucco gas pipeline may transport gas from Iran from 2017, said Nabucco Gas Pipeline GmbH consortium head Reinhard Mitschek in an interview with Handelsblatt.
The Nabucco gas pipeline will link Turkey’s borders with Iran and Georgia with Austria. The five-billion euro EU-backed project is aimed at securing EU’s gas supply by diversifying routes and suppliers away from Russia.
“Later we could add gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan through the trans-Caspian pipeline,“ Mitschek told the newspaper.
“In a next step, around 2017, deliveries from Iran, Iraq and Egypt cannot be ruled out,“ rigzone.com reported.
The founding members of the Nabucco consortium which is to build the pipeline are Austria’s OMV AG, Hungry’s MOL, Botas of Turkey, Transgas of Romania and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz.
All the companies hold equal shares in the project. They are currently looking for the sixth partner to slash the costs of the project.
The pipeline aimed to reduce Europe’s dependency on gas from Russia, which has proved to be an unreliable energy supplier in recent years.
Iran, which holds the world’s second gas reserves, can become a reliable supplier for Europe. It seems Nabucco project cannot be economically viable unless it transfers Iran’s gas to energy-hungry European states via Turkey.