Rosatom to break ground at Bushehr-2 Sept 10
MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom intends to hold the ground breaking ceremony for the Bushehr-2 nuclear power plant in Iran on September 10, the ASE Group said.
The contract is for the construction of two generating units, Nos. 2 and 3, at the Bushehr plant.
Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko will lead the Russian delegation at the ceremony. Valery Limarenko, head of the ASE Group, will also attend.
Russia and Iran signed the protocol to their intergovernmental agreement concerning construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran on November 11, 2014. The sides plan to cooperate in turnkey construction of eight nuclear power generating units equipped with VVER reactors in Iran, including four at Bushehr and four at another site. They also signed the contract to build the second stage of Bushehr containing two units with possible expansion to four.
Russia and Iran had signed a preliminary acceptance certificate marking the commissioning of Bushehr's first 1,000 MW nuclear power unit on September 23, 2013. The Bushehr plant is currently in a two-year warranty period, during which Russian experts will remain at Bushehr on a consultative basis and to provide technical support.
Bushehr's construction was started by Germany's Kraftwerk Union A.G. (Siemens/KWU) in 1974. On January 8, 1995, a contract was signed based on an agreement between Russia and Iran on completing the first power unit with a VVER-1000 reactor. Under a supplement to the contract dated August 29, 1998, Russia undertook to complete the power unit on a turnkey basis and to train Iranian operational personnel. A license to put the plant into operation was issued in October 2010. Since 2012, the project has been run by NIAEP-ASE. Bushehr reached its full projected capacity at the end of June 2013. Bushehr-1 began operating at 100% capacity in June 2013.
