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Call for Expediting Completion of Bushehr NPP New Units

Despite problems caused by the Covid-19 and financial constraints imposed by US sanctions, which slowed down construction operations at the second and third units of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in the southern namesake city, the project is making headway, the new head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said.

“Domestic companies with 2,000 people are involved in their construction and expediting the project’s completion is of great importance,” IRNA quoted Mohammad Eslami as saying.

Observing health protocols at the workplace has slowed the pace of construction, he added.

The US reimposed economic sanctions on Iran in August 2018, mainly targeting key industrial sectors.

Eslami noted that work for pouring concrete at the site of the second unit is almost complete.

The construction of the first unit of the plant in Bushehr was carried out with the help of Russia. It came on stream in 2011 and reached full capacity (1,000 MW) the following year.

The first unit of Iran’s sole nuclear power plant generated over 50 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from 2011 to 2020 that is equivalent to the energy produced by burning more than 60 million barrels of crude.

In 2014, Iran signed a contract with the Russian company Rosatom and its subsidiaries to build two reactors on the same site. The second unit of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled to come on stream in five years, while the third will be finished in seven years, following which nuclear power generation capacity will stand at 3,000 MW.

The second and third units will each have a capacity of 1,057 MW. Over $10 billion have been allocated to the two units. 

The Bushehr plant is the first civilian nuclear power facility in the Middle East and operates under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The plant generated 6.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the past 12 months," the official said, noting that the output helped cut carbon dioxide emissions by 6 million tons.