Translated material
Bushehr pace
Iran is rushing Russia to complete the nuclear power plant
Yesterday, the Vice President of Iran, the head of the national Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, arrived in Moscow for a two-day visit. On the first day of his visit, he met with the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko. The negotiations were closed. According to Vremya Novostei, the timing of the commissioning of the first power unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the supply of nuclear fuel from Russia were discussed. Negotiations will continue today.Construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr began back in 1972, when West German engineers began building a nuclear power plant commissioned by the Shah of Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, construction stopped, and an agreement on the participation of Russian specialists in the project was concluded in January 1995. The cost of the contract was $1 billion. In February 1998, Moscow and Tehran signed an additional agreement, according to which RAO Atomstroyexport was instructed to fully complete the construction of the first power unit with a capacity of one thousand megawatts and hand over the facility to the Iranian side with all the necessary equipment.
As of today, the work is 95% completed, and this event is expected in September 2007. In November of the same year, the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be connected to Iranian energy networks.
Iran from time to time reproaches Russia for violating the original deadlines - a year ago they talked about launching the Bushehr power unit by the end of 2006. This summer, the former official representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Hamid Reza Asefi, even hinted at the possibility of demanding monetary compensation from Russia for the delay. Yesterday, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, while on a plane en route to Moscow, told the Iranian journalists accompanying him that “the Iranians can independently complete the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant if the Russians are not able to put it into operation.” According to his assessment, six months are enough to put the Bushehr nuclear power plant into operation, not one year - the period that the Russian side calls.
After a meeting with Sergei Kiriyenko, the Vice President of Iran changed his anger to mercy. He admitted that “relationships with Russia are very important for Iran,” and said that his delegation plans to discuss in Moscow “issues of the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and a wide range of relations between the two countries.” The latter obviously refers to Russia's possible participation in tenders for the construction of two new nuclear power plants in Iran with the same capacity as the Bushehr one.
The press secretary of the head of Rosatom, Sergei Novikov, in a conversation with Vremya Novostey, urged not to dramatize the situation around the Bushehr nuclear power plant. He emphasized that the “parameters of compliance with all safety standards” remain “dominant” in the implementation of the project. This, according to him, makes it impossible to artificially accelerate construction and commissioning work.
The press service of Rosatom noted that the current visit to Moscow of the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran is a new stage in Russian-Iranian contacts. They recalled that at the end of August a delegation of Iranian nuclear scientists, led by Vice-President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mahmoud Jannatian, visited Russia. In addition to the timing of the commissioning of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and fuel supplies, the Iranian side is interested in the issue of personnel training. “To date, a draft agreement has already been prepared on the conditions of internship for personnel of the Bushehr NPP at the workplaces of the Kalinin NPP (similar in type - Ed. ), and we are talking about discussing and agreeing on this document,” noted Rosatom "
“The Bushehr nuclear power plant is important for Iran, including from the point of view of training national engineers for the nuclear field,” Nina Mamedova, head of the Iranian sector at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in an interview with Vremya Novostey. “The country’s leadership has already announced an ambitious program for the development of national nuclear energy, which provides for the construction of new nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 20 thousand megawatts in the coming years. And deepening cooperation with Russia will help the Iranian side train highly qualified specialists necessary to service new capacities,” the expert emphasized.