Iran test its long-delayed first nuclear power plant on Wednesday as it presses ahead with its controversial atomic drive despite international sanctions. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Gholam Reza Aghazdeh said the plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr could come on line within the next few months after Russian officials said construction is complete.
Iran is carrying out comprehensive tests of various equipment at the 1,000-megawatt plant which officials said involve "virtual fuel," not nuclear fuel rods. "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," the visiting head of the Russian nuclear agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, told reporters.
Iran's official IRNA news agency had reported on Tuesday that the two countries would announce a date for the plant to go operational during the pre-commissioning ceremony. "As for a timetable, the tests should take between four and six, seven months," Aghazadeh said at a press conference broadcast live on state television.
"And if they go smoothly, then it (the launch of the plant) will be even sooner." Tehran's ambitious nuclear drive has triggered a row with Western governments which suspect it is seeking to covertly build atomic weapons, a charge Iran strongly denies.
Russia took over construction at Bushehr in 1995 but completion of the plant was delayed for a number of reasons, in particular the nuclear stand-off between and Iran and the international community.
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