Iran to fire up nuclear plant next week

Iran will launch its first nuclear power plant next week, Russia’s nuclear agency announced today.

Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, said that uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into Iran’s Bushehr reactor in a ceremony on August 21 marking the beginning of its physical start-up.

He said that from that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy facility.

Russian officials said that the latest UN sanctions against Iran would not affect the Bushehr project.

The US has called for Russia to delay the start-up until Iran proves that it is not developing nuclear weapons.

Russia signed a $1bn contract in 1995 for building the Bushehr plant, but it has dragged its feet for years over completing the project.

Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays, but analysts believe they have used the project to press Iran to ease its defiance over its nuclear program.

Novikov said that Rosatom chief Kiriyenko will travel to Bushehr in southern Iran for the launch ceremony, which will also be attended by Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.