(RIA Novosti) - Iran's vice president will arrive in the Russian capital Monday to discuss the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant with Russia's nuclear chief, a source said Sunday, reports Trend.
Russia is helping Iran build the plant at Bushehr, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of the capital, Tehran. The Bushehr NPP, which is being built under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was previously scheduled to become operational by the end of 2006.
The source said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who is also the president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, will meet with Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency, to consider the final terms of the Bushehr first unit's commissioning and of Russian nuclear fuel supplies to Iran.
Earlier, Kiriyenko said Bushehr would be commissioned in September 2007 and that the power generating launch would be in November 2007.
Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, Atomstroiexport, is building Bushehr's first power unit under a $1 billion contract signed by Russia and Iran in 1995. A supplemental agreement signed in 1998 stipulates that Atomstroiexport will complete construction of the plant on a turnkey arrangement.