Iran to Launch First Nuclear Power Plant

The Associated Press

December 30, 2007

CBNNews.com - Iran said on Sunday that it will begin operation of the country's first nuclear power plant in the summer of 2008 using half its 1,000 megawatt capacity, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the Russians, who are helping build the light-water reactor in the southern Iranian town of Bushehr, will have completed nuclear fuel shipments by the summer, paving the way for its launch.

"The grounds are prepared for the injection of nuclear fuel to the Bushehr power plant and it will begin operation in the summer of 2008, in line with our agreements and contract with the Russians," Mottaki said.

"This will be half of the capacity of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the next half will begin operation later," he added.

After months of delay, Russia began shipping nuclear fuel to Bushehr in mid- December and completed its second delivery on Friday.

The Iranians have said Russia will send a total of 82 tonnes of nuclear fuel in eight shipments.

The process was held up by Russian claims that Iran had delayed construction payments for the reactor.

However many observers suggested Moscow also was unhappy with Tehran's unwillingness to assure the international community that it was not developing nuclear arms.

Tehran heralded the initial shipment as a victory, saying it proved its nuclear program was peaceful, not a cover for weapons development as claimed by the U.S. and some of its allies.

The U.S. initially opposed Russian participation in building the Bushehr reactor and supplying it with fuel, but reversed its position about a year ago to obtain Moscow's support for the first set of UN sanctions against Iran.

Washington also was influenced by Iran's agreement to return spent nuclear fuel from the reactor back to Russia to ensure it doesn't extract plutonium to make atomic bombs.

Russia's decision to begin shipping nuclear fuel to Iran followed a U.S. intelligence report released earlier this month that concluded Tehran had stopped its nuclear weapons programme in late 2003 and had not resumed it since.

Iran says it never had a weapons program.

The decision also came after the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran had been truthful about its past uranium enrichment activities.

Iranian officials have said they plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two decades.

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