Middle East News Line - 10.01.2002

 

Russia Launches New Phase of Iranian Nuke Plant

MOSCOW [MENL] -- Russia has launched what officials termed was a critical phase of a project to build a nuclear reactor for Iran.

Officials said Russia has delivered heavy equipment for the shell of the 1,000 megawatt reactor and the turbine at the Persian Gulf port city of Bushehr. They said the equipment began undergoing assembly last month and that Moscow plans to significantly increase the number of Russian engineers and technicians connected to the Bushehr project, valued at $800 million.

"All equipment, provided for by a contract with the Iranian side, was manufactured by Russian factories and successfully brought by sea from St. Petersburg to Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf," Viktor Kozlov, managing director of Atomstroiexport, said. "We have reached the stage of assembling our reactor and the turbine."

Kozlov told Russia' Itar-Tass news agency that the current effort seeks to integrate the Russian VVER-1000 light-water reactor as well as a Russian turbine with equipment built and designed by Germany. Germany suspended the Bushehr project in 1982 amid Iran's war with Iraq.