Iran expects to launch Bushehr power plant by March 2008
TEHRAN, April 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The Bushehr nuclear power plant will be commissioned by March 2008, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Saedi said on Tuesday.
“Despite the recent delays, Iran will apparently join the nations that own nuclear power plants this year,” the official said. The Iranian calendar year will end on March 20, 2008.
“Only 8% of works are still to be done in Bushehr, and they will be completed this year,” he added.
....A delegation of Russia’s Atomstroiexport (the general contractor of the Bushehr project) is visiting Iran for negotiations on settling mutual financial claims.
Meanwhile, Tehran reaffirmed that it rules out the possible uranium enrichment moratorium.
“Negotiations with the sextet [five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany] should show Iran that these countries seriously intend to recognize the unalienable right of the Islamic Republic to uranium enrichment,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Sunday.
He confirmed telephone consultations between Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, which took place earlier in the week.
“It is important that the other side cannot take a dual position: say that they are ready for dialog and simultaneously accept the UN Security Council resolution,” he said. “We will not hold any negotiations concerning unalienable rights of the Iranian nation.”
.....The Iranian administration conditioned full-scale cooperation on the return of the nuclear dossier from the UN Security Council to the IAEA. They also insist that the national atomic program is absolutely peaceful.
Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki said on the same day that the delayed commissioning of the Bushehr nuclear power plant forces Iran to make its own nuclear fuel.
“The discussion of financial aspects [of the Bushehr project] is almost over,” he said. “However, these delays show that Iran should produce its own nuclear fuel, in order to prevent similar situations in the future.”
Iran expects to launch Bushehr power plant by March 2008
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