Russia casts completion of Bushehr units 2, 3 as priority despite challenges
Russia’s Rosatom said on Thursday that construction of units 2 and 3 at Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant will remain a priority and will be completed successfully despite ongoing challenges.
Director General Alexey Likhachev told reporters that building the additional units at the plant in Iran would stay on the company’s priority list and that the project would be completed successfully sooner or later.
Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, built by Russia in the southern province of Bushehr, was first connected to the national electricity grid on September 3, 2011, and entered commercial operation in September 2013. The reactor has a net generating capacity of about 915 megawatts, or roughly 1,000 MW.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilov said Wednesday at a press conference on the final day of the 19th Joint Commission on Economic and Trade Cooperation between the two countries that Russia is “seriously cooperating with the Iranian government and has many projects in various locations; currently, units 2 and 3 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant are under construction.”
“Besides units 2 and 3 of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, we are examining new plant units,” Tsivilov added.
Mohammad Eslami, vice president and head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said during a visit last Saturday to the construction site in Bushehr that cumulative physical progress on the project has reached 18%.
He added that design, engineering and equipment manufacturing in workshops, as well as executive operations at the project site, are currently being carried out simultaneously. He noted that about 5,600 personnel from Iranian contractors are actively working at the site and expressed hope that, based on the revised schedule, the units would be commissioned in phases in the first year following completion of Iran’s Seventh Development Plan.
Each of units 2 and 3 is being built with a generation capacity of 1,057 megawatts of electricity.
Separately, according to IRNA, citing TASS, Likhachev said on Thursday that Rosatom has also developed plans to strengthen security at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in response to rising regional tensions.
He said that, with confidence and based on results, it could be stated that following negotiations by Russian President Vladimir Putin with world leaders, the plant was one of the safest locations during the Israeli-imposed 12-day war against Iran. He added that although some workers — particularly family members and children — were evacuated from the site, similar contingency plans had been prepared in advance.