(IRNA) - President of Russia's Atom Stroi Export Company Sergei Shmatko declared on Tuesday that supply of nuclear fuel for Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant will take place in March 2007 and that the project will become operational in November 2007, reports Trend.
After his talks with Iranian officials in Moscow, he said that the additional protocol which was signed in today's meeting set September 2007 as the date for completion of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.
Shmatko put the amount of nuclear fuel to be supplied at 163 fuel assemblies weighing approximately 80 tons.
Deputy Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mahmoud Jannatian said that given the progress in the project over the past six months, the specified schedule is quite feasible.
He noted that in the newly inked protocol, the two sides have almost come to terms on finalization of the project which makes the prospect of expediting the agreed schedule for supplying fuel and completion of the power plant more likely.
Russia had declare earlier that the project will not be completed before November 2007 and given repeated delay in implementation of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant project, Iran had called for expediting the process.
Criticizing the repeated delay of the Russian contractor in completing the project on Monday, Jannatian said that implementation of the project in six months is feasible.