By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Bushehr, Iran’s nuclear power plant, will start commercial energy production by the end of 2012, the plant’s designer said.
“We want to put it (into commercial production) at the end of this year. We plan to complete the main work concerning machinery testing this year but the necessary documents are likely to be signed next year,” Valery Limarenko said Monday.
Atomstroyexport, part of Russia’s civilian nuclear power corporation Rosatom, said in early May that Bushehr would start working up to full capacity from May 23.
Under a bilateral agreement approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia will operate the plant, supply its fuel and take away all the spent fuel for the next two or three years, but will eventually hand over full control to Iran.
The construction of Bushehr took more than three decades and has been dogged by delays. Russia signed a contract with Iran in February 1998 to complete the plant, which German companies first began back in 1975.