Bushehr N. Power Plant Starts Operation
News number: 9002191136 12:45 | 2011-05-09
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9002191136

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of
Bushehr officially started work on Sunday after months of testing and safety
precautions.

FNA dispatches from Bushehr said that Iranian and Russian experts finished
loading fuel into the heart of the power plant and that nuclear fuel
consumption has started in the power plant, meaning that it is now running
activity.

The plant will continue working for two weeks before it generates
electricity.

The power plant will join the national grid by the next two months.

Iran signed a deal with Russia in 1995, according to which the plant was
originally scheduled for completion in 1999. However, the project was
repeatedly delayed by the Russian side due to the intense pressure exerted
on Moscow by the United States and its western allies. Russia finally
completed construction of the plant last summer.

On October 26, Iran started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr
nuclear power plant in the initial phase of launching the nuclear reactor.

The facility operates under the full supervision of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA).

Later in March, Iran unloaded fuel from the heart of the Bushehr reactor,
and washed and triple-checked the fuel rods in a move to further boost the
safety of the plant.

US officials announced the same month that the disruption was due to a US
spyware attack against Iran's nuclear facilities through a malicious
software known as Stuxnet, but Iranian officials dismissed the claim.

Iran then started reloading fuel into the core of the reactor, and Iranian
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced that the reactor would enter
sensitive phases of operation from May 5 to 10.

The remarks by Salehi came a day after Russia's Atomstroiexport Company,
which oversaw the plant's construction, said in a statement that the
refueling operation started after the plant had been rechecked.

"The loading of fuel-rod assemblies into the core started at the Bushehr
nuclear power plant on April 8," the statement added.

Despite the propaganda campaign launched by the US-led West against the
safety of Iran's nuclear facilities, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization
of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi had underscored that all Iranian nuclear
installations in different parts of the country enjoy the necessary safety
standards.

"The important point in any given country's nuclear industry is the high
safety level of its installations compared with the other facilities and
installations of that country," Abbasi said, addressing a festival dubbed
'National Resistance and Civil Defense' in Tehran in mid March.

Meantime, the UN nuclear watchdog agency as the sole specialized world body
has repeatedly approved the high quality of Iran's nuclear safety standards.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Department of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) had also in a visit to Iran in March 2010 approved the
standard safety levels of all Iranian nuclear sites and installations, and
lauded the country's measures and special efforts in this regard.

"We realized that Iran's safety system responsible for inspecting Iranian
nuclear facilities and installations acts very well and is strong," Head of
the IAEA's Nuclear Safety and Security Department Olena Mykolaichuk said at
the time.

"I, as the head of the (inspection) team, assure the Iranian society that
Iran's installations are safe…," Mykolaichuk added.

She also stressed that her team has visited the Bushehr nuclear power plant
in Southern Iran and inspected the safety and security control system at the
installations.