Iran's first nuclear power plant, which is being built by Russia in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr, would be fully operational by mid-2010, said Russian and Iranian officials on Thursday.
Iranian news agencies quoted Ali Akbar Salehi, the chief of Iran's atomic agency, as saying on Thursday that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be launched late September.
Pointing out that the plant has cleared most tests successfully, Salehi said that the final tests are currently being conducted at the nuclear plant. Salehi indicated there would not be any further delay on the part of the Russians in commissioning the plant.
Meanwhile, Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation, told reporters in Moscow after a cabinet meeting that the Bushehr plant is set be begin operations this year.
"2010 is the year of Bushehr," Kiriyenko said. "There is absolutely no doubt that it will be built this year. Everything is going according to schedule."
Russia started working on the Bushehr power project under a contract estimated to be worth about $1 billion in 1995. Initially, German firm Siemens began the Bushehr project in the 1970s, but it was disrupted by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Moscow says that it has already supplied the fuel required to get the power plant running, but insists that the plant cannot be used for any weapons program and is meant purely for power generation purposes. Additionally, the contract requires Iran to return all spent fuel rods to Russia.
According to Russian officials, the Bushehr power plant will be capable of producing about 1,000 megawatts of electricity a year upon completion. Though the plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999, construction was delayed over issues linked to Iran's controversial nuclear program.
The latest development comes amidst rising tensions over Iran's refusal to accept a UN-proposed deal aimed at easing the international concerns over Teheran's disputed nuclear program. The deal was proposed in October by the then International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
The IAEA-proposed plan envisaged shipping low-enriched Iranian uranium to Russia for further enrichment and then to France for conversion into actual fuel for Teheran's medical-purpose reactor that makes isotopes.
The proposed deal was seen as an amicable solution to the issue, as it would provide Iran the nuclear fuel required to run its research reactor while guaranteeing the West that Tehran will not have enough nuclear material to convert into finer-grade uranium required for making nuclear weapons.
Following Iran's refusal to accept the UN-proposed deal, Western nations in the five-member permanent UN Security Council threatened to impose further sanctions on Iran over its continued defiance of international concerns on its nuclear program. China and Russia, the other two members of the Council, however, has called for more restraint and patience.
Currently, the United States and its allies are making serious efforts to persuade Russia and China, two veto-power holding countries in the UN Security Council, to back them in enforcing further sanctions on Iran if diplomatic efforts fail to convince Tehran to roll back its disputed nuclear program.
Though Iran insists that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful civilian power generation purposes only, the West believes Teheran's claims are just a cover-up for its nuclear weapon ambitions. Iran has already survived three sets of sanctions imposed on it by the UN Security Council following refusal to halt its nuclear development work.
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April 17, 2026 15:29 ET The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to raise concerns for policymakers who worry about the impact of the supply shock and high energy prices on the real economy. Producer price data and various survey results on the housing market were the main news from the U.S. this week. In Europe, industrial production data for the euro area gained attention. GDP figures out of China and the policy move by the Singapore central bank were in focus in Asia.