"The agreement may be signed during the visit in October-November. I'll hardly go there in summer", Rumyantsev said.
It can be signed "even tomorrow" without technical clauses supplemented, he added.
But, technicalities surrounding the return of wasted nuclear fuel have not yet seen resolved. Such as prices for keeping it in Russia.
"Nothing has actually changed here but differences remain. The procedure for the return of the fuel has not yet been fixed and special containers still have to be developed", Rumyantsev said.
The head of the Federal Nuclear Energy said that the typical price of wasted nuclear fuel is about 1,000 dollars per kilogramme, averaging from 600 to 1,500 dollars.
Asked by RIA Novosti whether, during the visit, he will talk with Iranian representatives the possible building by Russia of the second unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant (Russian specialists have been building the first light-water reactor in Bushehr in southern Iran since the 1990's. Its physical start-up is slated for late 2005, commercial operation for 2006), Rumyantsev said that experts are only studying the matter.
"Of course, Russia can begin another project in Iran. But the matter still has to be discussed at a high intergovernmental level", he said.
Rumyantsev recalled that the construction of the second Bushehr unit was begun in its time by Germany's Siemens firm (way back in the Shah-ruled Iran before the 1979 victorious Islamic revolution. After it, Germany had to end construction under pressure from the United States, which turned overnight from the main ally of Iran into Foe No I of the Islamic Republic).
"If we do decide on construction, it will be survey work in case it is a new site or study what has been built by Seimens in order to complete the unit. In case of the latter, it will be a long process", he said.
Alexander Rumyantsev voiced the hope that the regular IAEA session in Vienna in 2005 will close the Iranian "nuclear dossier". "The Vienna session of the IAEA may close the "nuclear dossier", as seen from the present favourable situation", he said.
(However critical, the resolution on the Iranian nuclear programmes, adopted in by the IAEA Board of Governors in mid-June, noted Teheran's voluntary decision to end its projects on the enrichment of uranium and reprocession of this fissionable material, as well as IAEA's permission to host verification inspections. The resolution admits that, as a result of Iran's cooperation with the IAEA, international inspectors have gained access to all the nuclear facilities in Iran, including those under the Defence Industry Organisation. Most importantly, the resolution does not contain a clause on passing the Iranian "nuclear dossier" to the UN Security Council for consideration of anti-Iranian sanctions, which Teheran so much feared. Iran's first reaction to the adoption of the resolution was sharply negative. Its authorities even began to talk of ending cooperation with the IAEA and resuming manufacture of parts to laser centrifuges P-2, accused the European troika - Britain, France and Germany - of non-observance of the agreements earlier reached with Iran. Later, passions subsided and Teheran declared continuation of the constructive cooperation with the IAEA.)
