Plans to generate electricity from nuclear power will remain unchanged irrespective of ongoing negotiations with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program, a member of the parliament's Energy Commission announced.
Electricity production in existing or prospective nuclear power plants are unaffected by the ongoing nuclear talks and will be generated regardless of the negotiation's outcome, Tasnim News Agency quoted Seyed Mousa Mousavi as saying on Tuesday, following the meeting between the energy commission and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) on technical aspects of the nuclear negotiations.
Nuclear power is the use of reactors to release nuclear energy, thereby generating electricity. A nuclear power station turns the nuclear energy in uranium atoms into electrical energy, used in household, commercial and industrial sectors.
Currently, natural gas is the largest source of fuel for electricity generation in Iran, accounting for almost 70 percent of total generation. Oil, hydropower, coal, and non-hydro renewables made up the rest of fuel sources used for electricity generation, with marginal production from Bushehr nuclear power plant that came online in 2011 but did not start commercial production until 2013.
Technical issues were discussed at the meeting to choose the "most advantageous path to reach a final agreement," Mousavi reiterated, approving the negotiating team's principal policies.
After eight days of marathon talks on Tehran's nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland, Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, the US plus Germany) reached a framework agreement on April 2 that calls for lifting all trade sanctions against Iran. The details of the agreement are to be finalized by a June 30 deadline.
