The launch of the second unit of Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled for October 2024, the data published by Russia's Rosatom state nuclear agency said on Friday.
According to the report, the launch of the plant's third unit is planned in April 2026. The Russian-built Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant started operating in Iran in 2011 and reached full capacity the following year, Sputnik reported.
In April 2016, the unit was finally handed over to Iran, officially completing its construction stage.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said this month that Russia’s Atomic Energy Corporation, known as Rosatom, may start the construction of the second and third power units of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in southern Iran before the yearend.
In November 2014, Tehran and Moscow signed a set of agreements on the construction of eight more nuclear power plants in Iran.
In May, Rosatom said Russia is ready to start designing Bushehr-2 nuclear plant before the end of 2016 when the two sides decide on the plant’s site.
Construction of the third power unit may be launched within the next two years. Overall investments in the project are estimated at $11 billion.
Tehran-Moscow cooperation in the power plant industry dates back to 1995, when Russian contractors took over Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant from the Germans.
The power plant continued to face technical and financial obstacles, but it officially went on stream in September 2011 and reportedly reached full capacity in mid-2014.
According to reports, US President Barack Obama has backed Tehran’s plans to construct two Russian-built nuclear power plants under the nuclear agreement reached last year.
