Payment delays opening of first Iranian nuclear power plant

The state-run Russian company building Iran’s first nuclear power plant today said the reactor’s launch will be postponed because of Iranian payment delays.

“It will be impossible to launch the reactor in September, and there can be no talk about supplying fuel this month,” Atomstroiexport said in a statement that followed last week’s collapse of talks on the funding dispute.

It accused the Iranians of failing to give a written obligation to resume funding for the project.

Russia has accused Iran of paying only a fraction of the required monthly payments of £12.5m (€18.3m) for construction work at Bushehr in recent months, and warned that the funding delays would push back both the reactor’s launch and the delivery of the uranium fuel needed to power the reactor.

Iranian officials rejected Russia’s claims and have suggested Moscow is bowing to international pressure to take a tougher line against Tehran.

The three-day talks in Moscow between Atomstroiexport officials and an Iranian nuclear delegation ended in failure on Friday.

Iran has urged Russia to speed up the fuel delivery, but Russian officials said it would only be delivered six months before the plant’s launch.

While Iran emphasises that it has the legal right to develop an enrichment programme to generate nuclear power, the UN Security Council has called on Tehran to end enrichment activities and imposed limited sanctions in December over its refusal to do so.

Senior representatives of the five permanent Security Council members – Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France, along with Germany – have been discussing possible new sanctions against Iran to force it to suspend enrichment efforts.