Farce News Nov 06, 2016
TEHRAN (FNA)- Director General of France’s International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Bernard Bigot voiced ITER’s full endorsement for Iran’s membership in the nuclear fusion project, and said both sides will benefit from the outcome of the project.
“The cooperation will have win-win results for both sides,” Bigot said on Sunday.
He described the project as the biggest and most up-to-date one in the field of nuclear fusion, and said, “All world countries, specially Iran, could join the project.”
Bigot reiterated that Iran as an important and advanced country could have a vital collaboration with the project.
On Saturday, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi underlined Iran’s resolve to become an ITER member before the end of 2016.
“The grounds are now ready for Iran to be admitted as the 36th member of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France,” Salehi told reporters on the sidelines of his meeting with Bigot in Tehran.
He underlined that Iran will become the first and only country in West Asia to be admitted to as ITER member.
Earlier on Saturday, Salehi announced that the AEOI and ITER have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand their cooperation in the nuclear fields.
“According to the MoU, Iran and ITER are obliged to keep information of the two sides as confidential,” Salehi told reporters.
Iran’s nuclear chief also expressed hope that his country could join the ITER project by end of 2016.
Bigot is on a two-day visit to Tehran to hold talks with Iran’s nuclear fusion experts.
Salehi, heading a high-ranking nuclear delegation, recently visited International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France.
In early July, AEOI Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi announced that Tehran and Paris have agreed to develop their relations in nuclear fusion.
“Based on the general understanding between Iran and France the two countries are going to cooperate in setting up Iran’s first thermonuclear experimental reactor that is expected to produce 500 megawatts of electricity,” Kamalvandi said.
The AEOI spokesman also said that the joint project has been launched ten years ago and by 2030 Iran will have its first thermonuclear experimental reactor while by 2040 the Islamic Republic is going to operate its first reactor of this type.
In mid-September 2015, Iranian and French officials in a meeting on the sidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference in Vienna reviewed avenues to boost mutual nuclear cooperation.
Salehi held a meeting with the French delegation to the IAEA meeting on September 15 to discuss ways to start nuclear cooperation after the nuclear agreement clinched between Tehran and the world powers in Vienna on July 14 comes into practice.
During the meeting, they also negotiated on the ITER project (an international project to design and build an experimental fusion reactor based on the ‘tokamak’ concept), and decided to continue contacts in the future.
The French side described the nuclear agreement, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a good ground for the expansion of relations between the two countries, specially in the nuclear field.
Iran and the world powers reached a final agreement in Vienna on July 14 to end a 13-year-old nuclear standoff.
A week later, the UNSC unanimously endorsed a draft resolution turning into international law the JCPOA reached between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France) over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Now the US Congress and the Iranian parliament have less than one month to review the deal to approve or reject its practice.