Bushehr reactor may be launched Mar 2010 - source in Rosatom.

17/11 Tass 350

MOSCOW, November 17 (Itar-Tass) -- The physical launch of the first
reactor at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant may begin by Iran's New
Year, to be marked in March 2010, a source in the Russian state-run atomic
energy corporation Rosatom told Itar-Tass. "The work to assemble the
integrated equipment at the generating unit will take as much time as
necessary, because the reactor's safe operation is top priority."

According to the source, all construction works at the facility have
been completed.
"At Iran's request the unit incorporates the integrated equipment,
supplied many years ago by a branch of Germany's Siemens company, so the
most important task now is to test that equipment to ensure the safe
operation of the whole unit," he said. "At present tune-up and adjustment
and hydraulic tests are being carried out in compliance with the
authorized schedule. After that the unit's equipment will be tested in the
cold and hot mode and the performance of all equipment will be revised."
As an example, Rosatom recalled progress in readying for operation a
newly-built reactor at the Volgodonsk NPP.
"The hydraulic tests of the equipment assembled at that unit began
last August, and if there are no complications, the unit's physical launch
is due in December," the source said. He believes that if the Bushehr NPP
follows the same scenario, the physical launch of the first reactor may
begin in March 2010, by Iran's New Year."
Rosatom also believes that several months will pass before the first
reactor at Bushehr is put on stream.
In the meantime, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow
on Tuesday after talks with his Kazakh counterpart Kanat Saudabayev that
"there is no political linkage between the settlement of the Iranian
nuclear program and the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant."
"There exists no link whatsoever between progress in talks with Iran
over its nuclear program and the power plant construction issue," he said.
"There is no politics involved here. A normal working process is on, and
very complicated, purely technological issues are being resolved."
The Russian foreign minister also remarked "it is too early to say
that the world community's efforts aimed at settling tensions over Iran's
nuclear program have been unsuccessful." As he dwelt on the theme of a
peace settlement of Iran's nuclear program, Lavrov said once again that
Russia's position remained unchanged.
"We keep working with the European countries, with China, the United
States, Iran and the IAEA leadership with the aim to ensure the
fundamental agreements that were achieved in Vienna last month should be
implemented to the full extent," the Russian foreign minister said.
On August 25, 1992 Moscow and Teheran signed two inter-governmental
agreements - on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear power and on
building a nuclear power plant in Iranian territory. On January 8, 1995
the two countries concluded a bilateral contract on finalizing the first
reactor at the Bushehr NPP, and in 1998, an addendum to the contract, by
which Russia undertook to finalize the first generating unit on turnkey
terms. Under the signed documents, the Bushehr project is managed by
Russia's Atomstroiexport company, currently an affiliate of the state-run
corporation Rosatom.
Atomstroiexport specialists are building the first reactor at the
Bushehr NPP in accordance with a timetable agreed with Iran and under the
control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A Russian-Iranian joint
venture will operate the first reactor throughout the effective warrantee
period under the terms of the existing contract. After that Iranian
specialists will take over.
The original intention was the Bushehr NPP would have a capacity of
about 250 megawatts. Under the addenda to the 1992 agreements, signed on
February 27, 2005 Iran pledged to dispatch spent nuclear fuel from Bushehr
to Russia, and Russia, to accept it for long-term storage and recycling.
Iran's first nuclear power plant has a Russia-designed and
manufactured 1,000-megawatt water pressurized reactor VVER-1000. A total
of 130 Russian sub-contractors contributed to the project. On December 16,
2007 the first portion of nuclear fuel from Russia's manufacturer TVEL was
delivered to a special storage facility at Bushehr. It is to be used for
the reactor's physical launch. In all a total of 82 tonnes of nuclear fuel
was brought to the NPP's site by motor transport in eight installments.
The last one arrived on January 28, 2008. From November 26, 2007 to
February 12, 2008 IAEA officials inspected the Russian fuel being supplied
for Bushehr.
Construction work at the site had been completed by the end of
February 2009. On February 25 the chief of Iran's Atomic Energy
Organization Gholam Reza Aghazadeh and the general director of Russia's
Rosatom corporation, Sergei Kiriyenko, attended the test loading of the
reactor with simulators of fuel assemblies. The tune-up and adjustment
work began afterwards. The Iranian government made the decision to
establish a company for the management of the Bushehr NPP on June 2, 2009.
On November 16, 2009 Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said that
Iran's Bushehr NPP will not be put on stream this year. The Russian Energy
Ministry recalled that the technological rules required several key
procedures of finalizing the energy unit and commissioning the reactor.
"In 2009 the reactor will not go on stream, but it was not to under
the original schedule anyway," the Russian Energy Ministry said.

-0-str