Budget for new nuke plants

Iran has allocated equivalent of $ 215 million for the construction of what would be its second and third nuclear power plants, state radio reported on Monday. The report did not give the location of the new reactors, but last month Iran said it planned to build new plants in the southern Iranian provinces of Khuzestan and Bushehr.

“Some 1,940 billion rials have been allocated for the building of two nuclear power plants in the draft budget bill for the next Iranian year,” the head of Iran’s management and planning organisation, Farhad Rahar, told Tehran radio.

Meanwhile, Iran on Monday banned CNN journalists from working there after the broadcaster misquoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Iran wanted nuclear weapons, the ISNA students news agency said.

Story continues below this ad

CNN’s simultaneous translation of Ahmadinejad’s lengthy news conference on Saturday included the phrase “the use of nuclear weapons is Iran’s right”.

In fact, what Ahmadinejad said was that “Iran has the right to nuclear energy,” the official IRNA news agency reported. CNN later clarified in an apology on Sunday night. —Agencies