By Xinhua
Tehran : A senior Iranian nuclear official said on Monday that the first shipment of nuclear fuel from Russiafor Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power station has arrived in the country, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“The first shipment arrived in Iran on Monday and the transfer of the fuel will continue according to the timetable,” Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted as saying.
The Bushehr nuclear plant was 95 percent complete and would begin operations “next year,” he said, adding that the plant would need 80 tons of nuclear fuel during the initial phase of operation.
Aghazadeh, who is also Iran’s vice president, rejected the notion that the delivery of nuclear fuel from Russia to the Bushehr nuclear power plant meant Iran did not require enrichment.
“We are constructing a nuclear power station with the capacity of 360 megawatts and this power station needs fuel,” Aghazadeh said. “The fuel for the power station will be supplied by Natanz(uranium enrichment plant).”
The IRNA report did not mention the location of the 360-megawatt power station, but Iran’s state television quoted Aghazadeh as saying that it is being built in Darkhowein in the southwestern Khuzestan province.
“The construction of the power station will last some years. And in parallel to the progress, Natanz enrichment site is also needed to be expanded,” Aghazadeh said.
The Russian contractor company Atomstroiexport said earlier on Monday that Russia supplied the first batch of nuclear fuel to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
A total of 163 main and 17 reserve assemblies of U-235 enriched to 3.62 percent would be delivered for the first loading, the company said in a statement. All the deliveries will be made in several stages over two months.
During an inspection in late November, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Russian nuclear specialists have checked and sealed those nuclear fuel containers for delivery to Iran at a Siberian chemical plant.
As the first nuclear power station in Iran, Bushehr had been expected to start operation September this year.
But the start-up has been delayed and the project remains under construction due to a dispute between Russian contractors and Iranover the terms of payment.
Russia and Iran reached an agreement earlier this month that paved the way for the delivery of nuclear fuel.
The United States and some other Western countries have been alleged that Iran may try to develop atomic bombs under a civilian cover.
Iran has denied all the charges, saying it’s nuclear program was just aimed at generating electricity and would never abandon its legal rights.
Russian Foreign Ministry, however, has promised that those fuel will be under control of the IAEA.
“All fuel that will be delivered will be under control and guarantees of the IAEA for the whole time it stays on Iranian territory,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
“Moreover, the Iranian side gave additional written guarantees that the fuel will only be used for the Bushehr nuclear power plant,” it said.