TEHRAN: Iran on Monday was finally taking control of its civilian nuclear reactor at Bushehr, a project begun 37 years ago by West Germany, wracked by setbacks, and finished by Russia.
The Islamic republic’s atomic agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed Russia was handing over the 1,000-megawatt plant but said its experts would remain in Bushehr as part of a guarantee scheme for the operation.
“A team of Iranian engineers will take control of the Bushehr power plant beginning today,” he told state television, ahead of the handover ceremony in the southern city located east across Gulf waters from southern Kuwait.
Construction of the facility — championed by Tehran as an illustration of its peaceful nuclear intentions — began in 1975 with the help of West German company Siemens, which quit the project after the 1979 Islamic revolution over concerns about nuclear proliferation.
Work was hampered during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, until Russia agreed in mid-90s to take up the construction baton due originally for completion in 1999.
It is not clear how much the plant has finally cost Iran.
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Moscow has also agreed to provide its fuel for 10 years, with the supply deal committing Tehran to returning the spent fuel, amid Western concerns over its controversial uranium enrichment programme.
Tehran’s nuclear ambitions have been at the heart of its troubled relations with world powers for years.
Western powers and Israel suspect that Iran’s declared peaceful programme of uranium enrichment masks a covert weapons drive, a charge vehemently denied by the Iranian leadership.
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