Tehran, June 28: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is located on the Persian Gulf coast, will come on stream by the end of August.
Salehi announced that the plant will reach 40 percent of its full capacity around mid-August and will be connected to the national power grid by the end of the month, the Mehr news agency reported on Monday.
The Iranian foreign minister, who made the remarks on a television program on Sunday night, described the nuclear process as “smooth” and stated, “This process — from the beginning to electricity generation — takes between nine months and a year.”
Salehi, who was formerly the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), also said the Bushehr nuclear power plant faced a minor pump problem that delayed the processes for some two months.
“Although we could have continued work, we preferred to reopen the reactor’s heart and offload the fuel,” he explained, adding, “The fuel was rinsed to ensure the removal of metal splinters and reloaded afterward.”
Salehi said that the reactor is currently producing vapor and preparing to come online soon.
Iran signed an agreement with Russia in 1995, according to which the plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999. However, the project was repeatedly delayed by the Russians due to intense pressure exerted by the United States and its Western allies. Russia finally completed the construction of the plant in summer 2010.
On October 26, 2010, Iran started loading fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the initial phase of the launch of the country’s first nuclear reactor.
However, the fuel was removed later due to safety considerations and then reloaded into the core of the reactor.
The facility operates under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
——Agencies