Officials said 163 fuel rods supplied by Russia would be installed in
the reactor's core. They said the work would be completed by Sept. 5 and
followed by initial operations at Bushehr.
"We are looking for assurance of supply of fuel to the reactors,"
Salehi, who is also Iran's vice president, said.
Still, the Bushehr reactor would not produce energy until around
November 2010, officials said. They said the International Atomic Energy
Agency has been monitoring the delivery of
nuclear fuel to the $1 billion Bushehr reactor.
"The countdown to the Bushehr nuclear power plant has begun," Russia's
state-owned Rosatom nuclear energy agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko said.
Bushehr, first planned in 1974 for a shelf life of 60 years, has been
ringed by heavy security. During the tour of the journalists, air defense
batteries were seen deployed around Bushehr.
Officials said the Iranian military tested the air defense batteries in
early August 2010. They said two target drones, in what was described as a
successful test, were flown toward Bushehr to determine the response by
radars and air defense batteries.
The Gulf Cooperation Council has also been preparing for the launch of
Bushehr, located about 200 kilometers from Bahrain. The GCC has drafted an
emergency nuclear response plan that would include the prospect of a massive
leak from Bushehr. Diplomats said the plan would be examined in September
and could be ratified in December.
At the same time, Moscow and Teheran approved three agreements on
nuclear power cooperation. Officials said the memorandums of understanding
included the formation of a joint nuclear venture as well as measures for
full operations at Bushehr.
"Certainly implementation of great projects like the Bushehr nuclear
power plant by the two countries of Iran and Russia shows the high
potentials existing on both sides and it will provide room for the
development of cooperation and will lead it towards strategic relations,"
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said.
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