Iran preparing to take control of Bushehr nuclear plant

TEHRAN TIMES – Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Fereydoun Abbasi has announced that Iranian experts will make the preparations necessary to take over the full control of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in late 2012 or early 2013.

The Bushehr power plant is undergoing final tests, and “the preparations for the handover of the power plant by the Russian contractor to Iranian experts will be made in the near future,” Abbasi told reporters in Bushehr on Saturday.

“After various tests and experiments at the Bushehr power plant, we will begin the preliminary launch of the project by Iranian experts in Dey or Bahman (December 21, 2012 to February 18, 2013.”

Director General of NIAEP Valeryi Limarenko, who manages the construction of the plant by Atomstroyexport, the general contractor, said on October 19 that signing of the act of acceptance for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant is rescheduled for March 2013.

Limarenko said at the time that they had been implementing some new technical processes, and it had become clear that to perform the work well, they needed some more time, and therefore signing of the acceptance act had been put off until March 2013.

Limarenko also noted that after the nuclear power plant in Bushehr was accepted by the Iranian side, at least 300 Russian personnel would stay in Iran to help maintain the plant.

The nuclear plant, which is located near the port of Bushehr on the coast of the Persian Gulf, was plugged into Iran’s national grid in September 2011. In August 2012, Rosatom said that it was fully operational.

The plant is currently generating 1000 megawatts of nuclear electricity.

EP/PA