Russia sends fuel for Iran reactor - Rosatom
MOSCOW. May 12 (Interfax) - Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL has supplied 30 tonnes of fuel for refueling the reactor at the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, which was suspended in February due to technical faults, the state corporation Rosatom, which manages Russia's civil nuclear industry, said.
The fuel is to be loaded into the reactor in a year's time, a Rosatom spokesman told Interfax.
The first shipment of fuel delivered by Russia in January 2008 was loaded into the reactor in December 2010, but late in February Iran said the reactor had been suspended for technical reasons.
Later Russian specialists spotted faults in a pump unit in the cooling system, and Rosatom insisted that the fuel be removed from the reactor.
The pump units are part of equipment that was supplied by Siemens in the 70s and that the Russian side was committed to integrate into the plant, which Russian company Atomstroyexport is helping build.
Last month Atomstroyexport began to load fuel assemblies into the reactor after cleaning its interior and the plant's main circulation pipeline. The reactor has been running at minimum capacity for a few days.
Spent fuel is to be returned to Russia under the terms of the Russian-Iranian deal.
The Bushehr plant, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, is located in one of Iran's hottest districts on the Persian Gulf coast. German Kraftwerk Union AG (Siemens) began construction of the plant in the 1970s, but abandoned the project following the Iranian revolution. Atomstroyexport was contracted to finish the plant in the 1990s. At Iran's instruction, the Russian equipment was adapted to the unfinished plant.
