Iran completes reloading fuel into core of Bushehr reactor

Engineers have completed the last phase of reloading fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the Fars news agency reported on Monday.

According to the report, Iranian engineers in cooperation with Russian experts have managed to complete the reloading of the reactor.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant will be connected to the national grid by July 9.

The power plant first was launched in August 2010 as engineers loaded 163 fuel rods into the reactor under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On January 28, Ali Akbar Salehi, the former director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), announced that the Bushehr power plant will be connected to the national grid by February 20. He also said that the plant would be able to work at full capacity by mid-April. But in February, Iran unloaded fuel from the reactor.

Foreign media outlets claimed that the Stuxnet computer worm has caused delay in the launch of the power plant, but Iran said its nuclear facilities have not been affected by Stuxnet.

At the time, Tehran’s Ambassador to Moscow Reza Sajjadi told the Mehr News Agency that the decision to unload fuel from the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant was based on a request by Russia and had nothing to do with the Stuxnet computer worm.

The plant, which is located near the port of Bushehr on the coast of the Persian Gulf, will produce 1000 megawatts of electricity once it becomes fully operational