Tehran, Iran, Feb.21
Trend:
Deputy Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Ahmadian, has announced that the unit-1 of the Bushehr's nuclear power plant has supplied 35 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to the country's national grid.
"The amount of electricity produced by Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant has saved 55 million barrels of crude oil and prevented the release of more than 30 million tons of pollutants,” Ahmadian said, Trend reports citing IRNA.
"The plant will stop its operation in the third decade of March to switch its fuel and planned repairs, and according to forecasts, from May, it will return to the production cycle,” he said.
“This outflow from the circuit of production is a natural process in nuclear power plants, which should be shut down from the production circuit and then refueled,” he explained.
"This opportunity is being used to carry out planned repairs, which is also a completely natural process in exploiting this type of power plant.”
“The first unit of Bushehr's nuclear power plant is dependent on revenues from electricity sales to cover operating and maintenance costs,” Ahmadian added.
He went on to add that the government helped to provide part of the fuel needed for the plant last year, but not this year, due to the increase of the exchange rate.
"The support has to increase, otherwise fueling and supplying spare parts to the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be difficult next year," he warned.
“At the moment, the operation of the first power unit of Bushehr nuclear power plant is being carried out by Iranian special experts,” he said. "For repairs, some foreign experts are now being used."
The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is Iran's first commercial nuclear reactor. In 1994, Tehran and Moscow signed an agreement to construct the VVER 1000 MWe light-water reactor, and construction started the same year.
The contract for construction of the second line of Bushehr NPP consists of two units of Russian design with a total capacity of 2,100 megawatts.