Iran conducts test run of first nuclear power plant

IRANIAN and Russian technicians are conducting a test run of Iran’s first nuclear power plant, officials said yesterday, a big step toward launching full operations at the facility, which has long concerned the US and its allies.

At the same time, the number of centrifuges operating at its uranium enrichment plant has increased to 6,000, the country’s nuclear chief Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, said — up from 5,000 in November.

His announcement was the latest defiance of United Nations’ demands that Tehran suspend its enrichment programme because of fears it could be used to produce material for a warhead. Iran says its programme aims only to generate electricity.

The US has been worried over the nuclear plant at the southern port city of Bushehr because it fears Iran will reprocess the spent reactor fuel into plutonium, a potential material for a nuclear bomb.

Russia has helped build the facility and is providing it with enriched uranium fuel, and for a time Washington pressured Moscow to stop its assistance. But US concerns eased when Iran agreed to return spent fuel to Russia so it cannot be turned into plutonium.

The Bushehr plant is meant to be the first in a number of reactors for Iran’s energy programme.

But the opening of the 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor has long been delayed by construction and supply glitches.

Iran has said it aims to operate the reactor by the end of the year.

The tests, which began 10 days ago, “could take between four and seven months,” Aghazadeh, told reporters at Bushehr.

Scientists are carrying out a computer run of the equipment to ensure there are no malfunctions when enriched uranium fuel is introduced into the reactor.

Russia says there is no evidence that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and has joined China in weakening Western-backed sanctions in the UN Security Council, arguing that punishing Tehran too harshly for its nuclear activities would be counterproductive.

The UN Security Council passed three sets of sanctions against Iran over uranium enrichment and is considering further measures.