Iran Plans Late-2007 Start for Nuclear Power Plant

Iran plans to bring its Russian-built nuclear power reactor at Bushehr online in late 2007, a senior Russian official said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 26, 2005).

Russian nuclear energy head Sergei Kiriyenko said the plant would see its “physical launch” in September 2007 and would go online in November 2007, Interfax reported.  Kiriyenko spoke to reporters in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency — responsible for overseeing Bushehr’s operation — is holding its annual general conference (Associated Press/Jerusalem Post, Sept. 18).

Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh plans to visit Russia September 25 to discuss details of completing the long-delayed power plant.

Russia has considered its role in building the power plant to be separate from the ongoing disagreement over Iran’s efforts to develop uranium enrichment technology.

“As long as the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant remains within the framework of international law, the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power will conduct the nuclear plant’s construction within the agreed timeframe,” agency spokesman Sergei Novikov said earlier this month (Ria Novosti, Sept. 18).

The Russian-Iranian nuclear cooperation was once a contentious issue between Moscow and Washington, but criticism of the deal has quieted as international attention has focused on Iran’s program to enrich its own uranium fuel.

“Apparently everyone is aware once we build a nuclear reactor, provide nuclear fuel for it and then take the fuel back to Russia for processing and storing, there can be no talk about nonproliferation,” Kiriyenko said (Persian Journal, Sept. 18).

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