Other Names: Bushehr-1 and Bushehr-2
Location: Halileh, 12 kilometers south of Bushehr proper
Subordinate to: Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
Size: VVER 1000 MWe
Status: Operational in March 2009
Description:
Bushehr is nearing completion and is expected to go critical in March 2009. [1] The reactor is similar in technical configuration to Unit Four of Russia's Balakovskaya
plant in Balakovo. [2]
In 1974 Iran
contracted the West German company Siemens to build two 1,200 to 1,300 MWe
pressurized light water reactors. [3] Bushehr-1 was 90 percent complete and
Bushehr-2 was partially built before the Iranian Revolution. After the
revolution Ayatollah Khomeini froze construction because he deemed the project
to be un-Islamic. [4] During the Iran-Iraq war Iraqi warplanes bombed both of
the reactors, damaging them severely. After the war, Iran asked Siemens to
resume work on the facility. In the face of extreme diplomatic pressure
levied by the United States, Siemens refused to continue working on Bushehr and
proposed replacing the reactors with natural gas operated turbines. Iran
refused, and in 1995, Tehran and Moscow signed an $800 million agreement to
construct a VVER-1,000 MWe light water reactor at the Bushehr site [5].
Russian
fuel deliveries began in December 2007 because construction of Bushehr-1 was
nearing completion. Under the terms of the deal, Iran is required to
return spent fuel rods from the Bushehr reactor to Russia. [6] The IAEA has
arranged to verify and seal the fresh fuel shipments, and all of the fuel
assemblies imported from Russia for use at Bushehr have remained under Agency
seal.[7]
Key Sources:
[1] "Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant," Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), www.isisnucleariran.org.
[2]
"Russia: Balakovo NPP," NTI/CNS, www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/reactor/power/balakovo.htm,
"Balakovo-4," PRIS Database, IAEA; IRNA, 22 June 1989, in JPRS-TND-89-014 (14 July 1989), p. 15.
[3] "Bushehr," Federation of Atomic Scientists, www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/facility/bushehr.htm.
[4] "Bushehr," Federation of Atomic Scientists, www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/facility/bushehr.htm.
[4] "Bushehr – Background," Global Security.org, www.globalsecurity.org.
[5] Joseph Cirincione, Jon Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar, "Iran," in
Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats (Washington, D.C., Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), p. 304.
[6] "Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant," Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), www.isisnucleariran.org.
[7] "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and Relevant Provisions of
Security Council Resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008) in the
Islamic Republic of Iran," The International Atomic Energy Agency, 15
September 2008.
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Updated February 2009 |
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