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Iran FM upbeat over nuclear plant situation

Iran Materials 8 August 2011 13:13 (UTC +04:00)

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi expressed satisfaction over conditions of Bushehr nuclear power plant, ISNA reported.

"Everything goes well in the plant. Steam was once injected to turbines of the nuclear site and required tests were conducted. We hope the plant will join the national grid soon," he told reporters on Sunday.

The Bushehr power plant first was launched in August 2010 as engineers loaded 163 fuel rods into the reactor under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On January 28, then Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Director Ali Akbar Salehi announced that the power plant will be connected to the national grid by February 20. He also said that the plant would be able to work at full capacity by mid-April. But in February, Iran unloaded fuel from the reactor due to safety concerns.

In March, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in a telephone conversation with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that Russia would make every effort to make the Bushehr nuclear power plant fully operational at the planned time.

Later Iran announced that the Iranian engineers in cooperation with Russian experts have managed to complete the reloading of the reactor.

The plant, which is located near the port of Bushehr on the coast of the Persian Gulf, will produce 1000 megawatts of electricity once it becomes fully operational.

Bushehr is the first nuclear power plant in Iran and throughout the Middle East. Bushehr nuclear power plant began to be built by the German Kraftwerk Union concern in 1974, but in 1980 it terminated the contract because of Western German government's accession to the U.S. embargo on supplying equipment to Iran.

Aug.25, 1992 Russia and Iran signed an agreement to continue constructing nuclear power plant. In January 1995, a contract to complete the works on the first power unit was signed, and in 1998 construction management was transferred to AtomStroyExport.

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