Russian experts to resume work soon in Bushehr nuclear plant
Russian specialists working on the second and third phases of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant will return to the country shortly to accelerate construction, a senior Iranian energy official said on Tuesday.
Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, Iran's deputy energy minister for electricity and energy, said Russian Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev announced during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ministerial gathering in Kyrgyzstan that Moscow would expedite the deployment of its experts to Iran to ensure the project proceeds without delay.
“The Russian energy minister said the specialists will be stationed in Iran soon with greater speed to continue the implementation of the project," Rajabi Mashhadi told reporters, according to Mehr news agency.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant is currently operational, with its second and third units now under construction. The facility plays a key role in supplying Iran's electricity, with a net generating capacity of 915 megawatts, producing approximately six to seven terawatt-hours of electricity annually, according to official figures.
The plant's first unit was built with Russian cooperation and designed to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity. To date, it has produced a cumulative 80 million megawatt-hours of nuclear-generated electricity that has been injected into Iran's national power grid, according to state news agency Tasnim, which also reported that the plant has a capacity of 1,020 megawatts and accounts for one percent of Iran's total electricity generation capacity.
Rajabi Mashhadi also discussed plans for a power grid connection between Iran and Russia through Azerbaijan.
"The Russian side has agreed to the plan, and it was decided that the technical aspects and the modalities of cooperation among the three countries would be pursued further," he said.