Head of Russia's Atomic Agency Due in Iran Today

Head of Russia's Atomic Agency Due in Iran Today

TEHRAN (FNA)- Head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Sergei Kiriyenko is scheduled to arrive in Iran on Friday to visit the country's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr.

Russian news agencies on Thursday quoted Kiriyenko as calling the construction of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant a "big international project".

Kiriyenko will join Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi to open the facility on Saturday.

Inspectors from the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency will oversee fuel transportation to the reactor, Kiriyenko said in a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The launch "coincides with Russia's position that any country in the world has the right to nuclear energy for peaceful use," he said.

Russia announced last Friday that it plans to load fuel into the Bushehr power plant reactor on August 21.



Iranian officials say they have already completed the principal tests for the plant in preparation for the inauguration of the power plant.

Salehi announced on Saturday that Iranians will use nuclear-generated electricity two or three months after launching the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Russia has been building the nuclear facility in Iran since 1994. The start-up of the station, originally scheduled to be completed in 1999, has been delayed on several occasions.

Western corporations began the construction of the Bushehr facility in the 1970s. However, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Western companies reneged on their commitments and pulled out of the project due to political pressure from Washington.

Iran then turned to Russia to complete the project. In 1992, Tehran and Moscow signed a deal to complete the construction of the nuclear power plant.

Source: Farsnews