Russia announces new deadline to open Iran's Bushehr reactor: mid-2010
MOSCOW — Russia has again delayed the launch of Iran's first nuclear
reactor.
Officials said Russia has revised its deadline for the start of Iran's
Bushehr nuclear energy reactor. They said the latest timetable called for
the full operation of the 1,000 megawatt reactor in 2010.
"The absolute priority is security," Sergei Kiriyenko, director of
Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said. "No matter how many times
we need to prepare for a safe startup, we will do it."
In a briefing on Feb. 5, Kiriyenko said Rosatom was preparing to begin
operations at the $1 billion Bushehr in late 2009. He said he would travel
to Bushehr in February 2009 to oversee plans to complete the nuclear power
plant.
"If there are no unforeseen events, then the launch will go according to
the timetable," Kiriyenko said.
As late as December 2008, Iran and Russia said Bushehr would be launched
by July 2009. Kiriyenko said the latest deadline has won Iranian approval.
Officials said the Russian plan called for initial operations at
Bushehr — meant to test the reactor's systems — in December 2009 or early
2010. They said full operations would take at least another few months.
In early 2008, Russia delivered more than 80 tons of nuclear fuel for
the startup of Bushehr. But officials acknowledged that safety and
integration difficulties slowed down plans to complete the reactor, begun by
Germany's Siemens in the late 1970s.
"We are working to integrate the old equipment," Kiriyenko said. "It is
a unique project that no one has ever done before. We are integrating in the
project old German infrastructure that was delivered 25 years ago."