Russia ready to help Iran build nuke plant

MOSCOW, May 30 (UPI) -- Russia is ready to help Iran construct a second nuclear power plant.

Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom head Nikolai Spassky said his company would assist Iran in building the power plant if the project proved economically profitable and politically expedient.

"If it is not banned and if it is profitable, if the project is developed we are ready," Spassky said in an ITAR-Tass report Tuesday. "The U.N. Security Council permitted this issue in sanction resolutions. Preliminary consultations continue on this issue."

Spassky emphasized that there was nothing new in Rosatom's position on the issue.

Iran's civilian nuclear energy power program has long been an issue of dispute between Tehran and a number of countries.

The Iranian government insists that its nuclear power program is entirely peaceful and permitted under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed. The United States and Israel, as well as a number of other nations, allege that Iran's civilian nuclear power program masks a covert nuclear weapons program.