Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant to join national grid
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Iran's Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Tuesday that his country is getting ready to connect Bushehr nuclear power plant to the national grid in one month, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Talking to reporters, Salehi said, "the power plant is approaching steam production stage and we hope that, in the following month, the steam production capacity of the plant to reach to a point so that it could be fed into turbine to generate electricity," said IRNA.
"To be tested, the power plant will join the (national) grid several times at the start," he was quoted as saying.
"In the due time, the power plant will be inaugurated officially in the presence of some of the foreign media," said Salehi.
Asked whether the Russian president or premier will attend the opening ceremony, he said that "Tehran will announce its opinion about it in due time," according to IRNA.
Last week, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi said the Bushehr nuclear power plant would join the national grid soon.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier this month that Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant will be operational within weeks.
Construction of the Bushehr plant was started in 1975 by several German companies. However, the work halted when the United States imposed an embargo on hi-tech supplies to Iran after the 1979 revolution. Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the construction in 1998.
Completion of the plant's construction was postponed several times by mounting technical and financial challenges and pressure from the U.S..
