Bushehr nuclear power plant's first fuel complex will be inaugurated April 9, said director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Fars news agency reported Sunday.
This is the first nuclear fuel complex constructed in Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi said. On the agreement between Iran and Russia for construction of two 1,000 megawatts (MW) nuclear power plants in the southern Bushehr Province, the official said construction is projected to be carried out within 10 years.
The first power plant will be constructed in eight years, and work on the second will commence two years after completion of the first. The two-year gap is to allow transfer of technology to domestic experts, giving them the means to expand their contribution in construction of the second power plant.
Deputy head of the AEOI will travel to Moscow in the next few days to finalize the agreement on construction of the power plants, which is due to be signed between the Nuclear Power Plants Production & Development Company on behalf of the government of Iran, and its Russian counterpart, Rosatom.
Construction of the Bushehr plant – the first civilian nuclear plant in the Middle East – started in 1975 by German companies, but the work was halted after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A contract for completing the project was later signed between Iran and the Russian Ministry for Atomic Energy in 1995. In August 1995, Iran and Russia reached an agreement on the delivery of nuclear fuel, financing, and analysis of installations for the Bushehr reactors.
In November 2014, Moscow and Tehran signed two contracts – the broad terms of which were first laid down in a 1995 agreement – whereby Russia will build eight nuclear power plants for Iran.
