Official: Bushehr NPP requires nuclear fuel cycle

Iran’s Envoy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh said operation of the Bushehr nuclear power plant (NPP) requires a full nuclear fuel production cycle.

Nuclear fuel production in the country is important for Bushehr, Soltaniyeh said in an interview with Al-Alam TV.

Bushehr NPP was launched on Saturday night, Mehr News Agency reported.

Russia guaranteed supplying Bushehr nuclear fuel for up to ten years. It has delivered 82 tons of nuclear fuel in 2008 and 30 more tons in May 2011 to Iran. This nuclear fuel quantity is fully sufficient for Bushehr’s annual fuel demands. Iran has enrished uranium by 3.5 and 20 percent and plans to construct 20 new NPPs, claiming the country needs nuclear energy.

Today, Iran’s only completed NPP, Bushehr, supplies about 60 megawatt of electricity to the country's electric network. The plant will be officially inaugurated on Sept. 11.

Bushehr’s final production capacity is 1,000 megawatt of electricity.

Bushehr is the first nuclear power plant in Iran and throughout the Middle East. The plant began to be built by the German Kraftwerk Union in 1974. In 1980 the contract was terminated during the Western German government’s accession to the U.S. embargo on supplying equipment to Iran.

On Aug. 25, 1992, Russia and Iran signed an agreement to continue construction of the nuclear power plant. In January 1995, a contract to complete work on the first power unit was signed, and in 1998 construction management was transferred to AtomStroyExport.

Initially, construction of the station was planned for completion in 1999. Later, the deadlines were repeatedly postponed due to financial and technological challenges.


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