(IRNA) - Nuclear fuel for the Bushehr power plant will be delivered to Iran in March 2007 and the power plant will definitely be inaugurated in November 2007, a Russian nuclear official said here Tuesday, reports Trend.
Sergei Shmatko, president of the Russia's sole nuclear equipment and export company Atom Stroi Export, which is building the power plant, made the remarks at the end of nuclear talks between Iranian and Russian officials.
Visiting Vice-President and head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Reza Aqazadeh held two days of talks with the head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, and Russia's Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov.
Shmatko said that in accordance with an agreement signed between the two sides on Tuesday, the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant would be inaugurated with a test run in September 2007.
He added that nuclear fuel to be supplied to the plant will include 163 packages with a total weight of 80 tons.
An AEOI deputy, Mahmoud Jannatian, said the sides reached agreement on completion of the power plant which would carried a greater chance of an earlier date for the transfer of fuel to Iran and inauguration of the plant.
Russia had announced that the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant would not be completed and inaugurated before November 2007.
Repeated delays in implementation of the project had led Aqazadeh to announce in Moscow on Monday that if the Russian contractor fails to complete the power plant in accordance with a new timetable Iran would finish construction itself.
However, after his talks with Russia's nuclear officials, he said "inauguration of the Bushehr power plant is possible within the next six months."