Russians to complete Iranian nuclear plant in 2009

20 December 2007
Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant will not be ready before 2009, according to the head of the Russian contractor building the reactor.

Tehran received its first shipment of enriched uranium from Russia earlier this month (MEED 18:12:07).

“I have promised to clear up the date when the construction of the Bushehr power plant will be completed, but can say for sure that the station will not be launched before the end of 2008,” says Sergei Shmatko, president of Atomstroyexport.

Shmatko says his firm had agreed to a schedule for completing the nuclear power station with the Iranian authorities, but it had not set a date when the plant would open.

The Russian contractor says the plant needs another two months of deliveries, then six months of building work and finally a period of testing.

Atomstroyexport declined to say how long the testing would take.

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