Iran's FM Spokesperson: No delay in launch of Bushehr power plant

There will be no delay in launching the Bushehr nuclear power plant, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ramin Mehmanparast said here Tuesday, IRNA reported.

During his weekly news conference, Mehmanparast said nothing new has happened in the process of its launch and the nuclear power plant will become operational.

Mehmanparast made the remarks while answering a question about the statement recently made by his Russian counterpart on likely delay in the action of launching Bushehr power station.

The Bushehr power plant first was launched in August 2010 as engineers loaded 163 fuel rods into the reactor under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On January 28, then Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Director Ali Akbar Salehi announced that the power plant will be connected to the national grid by February 20. He also said that the plant would be able to work at full capacity by mid-April. But in February, Iran unloaded fuel from the reactor due to safety concerns.

In March, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in a telephone conversation with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that Russia would make every effort to make the Bushehr nuclear power plant fully operational at the planned time.

Later Iran announced that the Iranian engineers in cooperation with Russian experts have managed to complete the reloading of the reactor.

The plant, which is located near the port of Bushehr on the coast of the Persian Gulf, will produce 1000 megawatts of electricity once it becomes fully operational.


/Trend/