The Chairman of Iranian Parliament’s National Security Committee says the Bushehr Nuclear Plant is in the final stage of its launch.
The Iran Labour News Agency reports that Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the parliamentary team that visited the plant has announced the plant will soon be connected to the energy grid. According to the parliamentary team, there are no delays in opening the nuclear plant, Boroujerdi added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also the former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, also told a Russian television network on Wednesday that the start-up of the Bushehr Nuclear Plant is imminent.
However, Iranian MP Emad Hosseini, a member of Parliament’s energy commission said this week that he did not see the launch of the Bushehr Nuclear Plant in the horizon . He has accused Russia of deliberately causing delays to stop Iran from developing its nuclear capabilities.
The Bushehr Nuclear plant has suffered numerous delays from the time it began construction in 1975 under the German firm Siemens. The 1979 Iranian Revolution stopped the project for more than 22 years, until it was picked up by the Russian contractors Atomestroyexport. Its scheduled launch last August was once again halted by technical concerns about the reactor. The nuclear fuel had to be removed from the reactor core, but it has been replaced and all technical concerns reportedly have been addressed and overcome.
