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"Iran Warns Moscow On Boushehr Atomic Plant"
Iran Press Service ^ | September 25 2006

Posted on 09/25/2006 2:30:50 PM PDT by knighthawk

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Tehran, 25 Sept. (IPS) Iran warned Russia on Monday that if it did not complete the Boushehr nuclear plant soon, it would think doing it by itself.

The warning, the first that was made public, was voiced by Iran’s Vice President Qolamreza Aqazadeh on his arrival in Moscow for talks with Rosatom's Sergei Kiriyenko during his two-day visit to the Russian capital.

"Should we face any problem in the process of completing Bushehr nuclear power plant project, we will act ourselves", the Iranian official news agency IRNA quoted Mr. Aqazadeh as having warned, as senior officials from the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation (AEOI) had disclosed that the Russian concern in charge of the construction of the 1000 megawatts project have failed to set a fixed date for the delivery of the plant as well for its fuel”.

“In this trip we are going to discuss ways to remove existing obstacles by quickly completing the Boushehr atomic plant and also we are going to agree the time of inauguration and sending the fuel”, Mohammad Sa’idi, deputy head of the AEOI told Iranian pro-government news agencies .

Hoping that obstacles that have caused the project being delayed be removed and a “reasonable” date would be fixed for the plant producing electricity; Mr. Saidi said there are no definite conclusions that the unit would start working on November 2007 and its fuel being shipped to Iran on March that year.

Aqazadeh, who is the Head of the AEOI and Kiriyenko are expected to sign a final deal solving the differences. Iranians' contribution to the project will expedite its implementation”, he suggested, proposing to the Russians to give a share to Iranians in the completion of the project.

“Although Russia at the time of Alexander Rumyantsev (Kiriyenko’s predecessor) gave Iran a written commitment on when to send the fuel, so far it has not materialized”, Sa’idi added before leaving for Moscow.

Iran signed up Russian nuclear industry construction firm Atomstroiexport in 1995 for a contract worth some 600 million dollars, but as the construction was marred with delays, the cost climbed to near one billion US Dollars.

Iran insists that the launch date for the reactor has been delayed several times. "The fuel should have been delivered to Iran but Moscow did not fulfill its commitment", he added.

Asked about remarks by Russian officials on completion and inauguration of the power plant in 2007 and supplying fuel six months before its completion, he said, "We have no new agreement on the date of completion and inauguration of the power plant and date of fuel supply".

However, Kiriyenko had earlier stated that according to the schedule in force the commissioning of the Boushehr power plant is to take place in September 2007 and its connection to the country's power network -- in November."