Iran’s nuclear organization announced on Thursday that the Arak nuclear reactor was ready for cold testing, noting that the Islamic Republic is eying cooperation with China in nuclear field.
In an interview with Tehran-based Jam-e Jam newspaper, Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi hoped that the cold test on the redesigned Arak nuclear reactor will take place in the next few months.
“The Arak project has seen good progress. Its equipment is designed and manufactured by Iranian experts.”
He explained that the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal were supposed to help Iran redesigning the Arak reactor, but, according to Kamalvandi, their help was limited to “an initial review.”
“In this project, we had good progress in the field of fuel and other areas such as fuel car, cooling pumps, control room and other stuff like that,” he said, as reported by Mehr news agency.
“This reactor is ready for cold testing. God willing… In the first half of this [Iranian] year, we will carry out a cold test.”
“The Arak reactor can fully meet the needs of the country for decades,” the senior Iranian nuclear official added.
Meanwhile, Kamalvandi said that the 25-year deal of cooperation between Iran and China different areas of energy were mentioned and nuclear energy is also included.”
“We hope to have good cooperation in various fields, especially power plants and small and medium-sized power plants, given China’s capacity and capabilities and the need for the development of the country’s nuclear industry.”
“We have already negotiated with China on small power plants so that we can reach agreements and work on nuclear cooperation.”
“It seems that Iran and China can have a lot in common in the field of the nuclear industry,” Kamalvandi added.
According to the AEOI spokesman “The 25-year agreement will pave the way for the development of strategic industry cooperation between the two countries.”
Source: Iranian media
