‘Bushehr nuclear power plant to start full operation in 2013’

Sergey Kirienko Director General of Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation ‘Rosatom’ said on Monday Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is expected to be commissioned by mid-2013.

He made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the Russian Interfax news agency.
The power plant’s utmost power for the generation of electricity is 1,000 megawatts.
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 physical construction of the plant last summer, but the facility still needed one more year to gradually reach full power generation capacity.
On October 26, 2010, Iran started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the initial phase of launching the nuclear reactor.
In 2011 Iran started using 500 MW of nuclear-generated electricity, half the nominal capacity of the Bushehr power plant.
Iran held a ceremony in September to mark the preliminary launch of the Bushehr plant.
The facility operates under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).