Iran’s First Nuclear Power Unit May Be Started in Early 2006 – Official

MOSCOW. Sept 22 (Interfax) – The first power unit of the nuclear plant in Bushehr, Iran, may be started in the first half of 2006, head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency Alexander Rumyantsev told a Thursday news conference.

“The prospect of starting the first unit is clearing. I think it will happen in the first half of 2006 and the first energy will be generated by the end of 2006, at the earliest,” he said.

Rumyantsev said that Russia is discussing the possible expansion of nuclear cooperation with Iran. However, there are no new concrete understandings between the two countries at the present moment.

Russia is building the first power unit with a capacity of 1,000 megawatt under an August 1992 intergovernmental agreement. It estimates the cost of building such a unit at over $1 billion.