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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant crosses a milestone

Iran’s Bushehr atomic power station crossed a major milestone on Wednesday following an announcement that the construction of the facility had been completed and a series of tests that would lead the formal commissioning of the 1000MW plant had commenced.

Sergei Kiriyenko, visiting head of Russia’s nuclear agency, Rosatom told reporters at Bushehr that the construction of the plant was now complete. “The construction stage of the nuclear power plant is over, we are now in the pre-commissioning stage, which is a combination of complex procedures,” he said. Mohsen Shirazi, spokesman of the atomic energy agency said dummy fuel rods were now being inserted in the reactor as part of the comprehensive tests that were scheduled. He said virtual fuel made of lead, which was designed to imitate nuclear fuel was being loaded in the plant.

“Virtual fuel which does not have uranium will be loaded in the core of the reactor,” the deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, told Iranian state television. “The main units, especially the primary circuit, back-up systems and sub-units are tested to remove any failure that could happen in the commissioning stage,” he said.

Iran is building the Bushehr facility with Russian help under a $1-billion contract.

(Source: The Hindu)

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