Iran again sets Bushehr start-up date, now a decade behind schedule

Geostrategy Direct ^ | 2/01/2010 | Geostrategy Direct

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Iran and Russia have agreed on another start-up date for the nuclear energy reactor at Bushehr. Officials said the two countries agreed to begin operations of the 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor in late 2010. They said the Bushehr reactor, built by Russia, was undergoing its final stage of tests.

"2010 is the year of Bushehr," Rosatom director Sergei Kiriyenko said.

In a briefing in Moscow on Jan. 21, Kiriyenko said Bushehr would be completed by the end of 2010. He said Russia's state-owned prime contractor Atomstroyexport had not reported delays in the final stage of Bushehr, a $1 billion project nearly a decade behind schedule.

"There is absolutely no doubt that it will be built this year," Kiriyenko said. "Everything is going according to schedule."

In Teheran, a senior Iranian official said Bushehr would begin operations by the fall of 2010. Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Ali Akbar Salehi, reporting recent successful tests, said the nuclear reactor's start-up would take place between April and November 2010.

In December 2009, Iran reported the completion of all major tests of Bushehr. Salehi said the final issues between Iran and Atomstroyexport were being resolved.

"We hope to hear good news on Bushehr power plant in the first half of the [Iranian] year [which begins on March 21] as the plant has passed most tests successfully," Salehi said.