OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2007. Russia and Iran have agreed on time of completing the construction of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the president of Atomstroyexport Sergey Shmatko told journalists today, Dec 13.

“The problems we have had with the Iranian party have been settled and we have agreed on the schedule of the project. I will specify it at the end of December,” Shmatko said.

“We are going to finish the project and to supply fuel six months before the launch,” Shmatko said. He said that Russia and Iran might set up a joint venture for operating the plant.

On Oct 16, during his visit to Iran, President of Russia Vladimir Putin discussed the problem of Bushehr NPP with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and confirmed Russia’s commitment to complete the project. In an interview to Iranian mass media Putin said that Russia was resolved to complete the construction of Bushehr NPP but did not say when exactly the plant would be supplied with fuel.

Meanwhile, TVEL OJSC has already prepared fuel for the plant (almost 100 tons produced by Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant). In late November IAEA experts inspected the fuel assemblies and sealed the containers. Rosatom has repeatedly said that the fuel will be supplied to the plant as soon as it needs it for operation.

The fuel will be stored in a special facility surveyed by an IAEA system. The seals from the containers will be removed right before the fuelling of the reactor.

Experts say that Iran will not be able to use the fuel for the production of weapons-grade uranium, first, because the fuel is not enriched to necessary degree and, second, because Iran does not have means for disassembling fuel assemblies that have been used in a reactor for some time.

The contract for the construction of the 1st unit of Bushehr NPP was signed in Tehran on Jan 8 1995. Russia pledged to provide one WWER-1000 reactor, to train Iranian operators and to supply nuclear fuel for the reactor.

In December 2006 Russia and Iran agreed to launch the plant in Sept 2007. Iran pledged to provide the project with $25mln a month, but later failed to pay in time. The parties are still negotiating this problem.

The contract says that Russia will supply Bushehr NPP with fuel for 30–40 years, i.e. throughout its life. The spent fuel will be returned to Russia for storage and recycling.