Iranian nuclear plant 'delayed by a year'

Russian officials today dismissed claims from Tehran that Iran’s first nuclear plant being built by Russia could be launched on schedule this year, saying that slow Iranian payments have made it impossible.

Irina Yesipova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Atomstroixport company, which is building the plant in the southern port of Bushehr, shrugged off the Iranian officials’ claims that it would be ready for launch in September as planned as “sheer nonsense.”

“Iranian payments have been clearly insufficient to complete the project,” Yesipova said.

Grigory Noginsky, head of the nuclear energy committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, said the Iranian payment delays had pushed construction back by at least one year.

“I think that the launch will be possible in reality no earlier than in summer-autumn 2008,” the Interfax news agency quoted Noginsky as saying.

And Ivan Istomin, head of Energoprogress company, a subcontractor for Atomstroiexport, also said the plant could not be launched before the autumn of 2008, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

“Our subcontractors have lost faith in the Bushehr project because of the Iranian actions,” Yesipova said.

Iranian officials denied any payment delays under the 1 billion US dollars (£485 million) contract, and accused Russia of caving in to Western pressure.

Tehran has been particularly frustrated by Moscow’s refusal to ship uranium fuel for the plant.

While Russia has continued to oppose a US push for tougher sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, Russian officials have shown growing irritation with Iran’s refusal to freeze its enrichment effort.

Enriched to a low degree, uranium is used as a reactor fuel, but a higher degree creates material for a nuclear warhead.

The US and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.