Bushehr plant to come on stream by late September

Director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi says the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be operational within the next few months.

In an interview with Fars News Agency on Wednesday, Salehi said that the Bushehr nuclear plant would come online by late September.

He added that experts are conducting important and final tests and that there will be no delays on the part of the Russians in launching the plant.

“So far most of the tests at the Bushehr power plant have been successful. Currently the tests on the metal sphere are being conducted, which will not take more than a week or two,” Salehi stated.

The Iranian nuclear official added that analytical testing procedures for the plants cooling system will be carried out in the coming months before nuclear fuel is introduced into the 1,000-megawatt Bushehr plant’s cycle.

Iran expects to generate 17.5 percent — 20,000 megawatts — of the country’s electricity demand through nuclear energy over the next two decades.

Washington and its allies accuse the Islamic Republic of pursuing a military nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, has repeatedly said that it has found no evidence supporting the allegation.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, confirming the non-diversion of nuclear material in the country’s functional and under-construction plants.

Tehran says as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it is entitled to the peaceful application of nuclear energy.