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The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (Persian نیروگاه اتمی بوشهر) is a nuclear power plant in Iran which is under construction 17 kilometres (11 mi) south-east of the city of Bushehr, between the fishing villages of Halileh and Bandargeh along the Persian Gulf. The nuclear power plant is planned to go on network in 2009.^[1]

History

The facility was the idea of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who envisioned a time when the world's oil supply would run out. He wanted a national electrical grid powered by clean nuclear power plants. Bushehr would be the first plant, and would supply energy to the inland city of Shiraz. In August 1974, the Shah said, "Petroleum is a noble material, much too valuable to burn... We envision producing, as soon as possible, 23,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity using nuclear plants".

The construction of the plant started in 1975 when the German Kraftwerk Union AG, a joint venture of Siemens AG and AEG Telefunken, signed a contract worth US$4–6 billion to build the pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant. Construction of the two 1,196 MWe nuclear generating units, identical with the two reactors from the German Biblis Nuclear Power Plant, was subcontracted to ThyssenKrupp AG, and was to have been completed in 1981.^[2]

Kraftwerk Union was eager to work with the Iranian government because, as spokesman Joachim Hospe said in 1976, "To fully exploit our nuclear power plant capacity, we have to land at least three contracts a year for delivery abroad. The market here is about saturated, and the United States has cornered most of the rest of Europe, so we have to concentrate on the third world."

Kraftwerk Union fully withdrew from the Bushehr nuclear project in July 1979, after work stopped in January 1979, with one reactor 50% complete, and the other reactor 85% complete. They said they based their action on Iran's non-payment of $450 million in overdue payments. The company had received $2.5 billion of the total contract. Their cancellation came after certainty that the Iranian government would unilaterally terminate the contract themselves, following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which paralyzed Iran's economy and led to a crisis in Iran's relations with the West.^[2]

In 1984, Kraftwerk Union did a preliminary assessment to see if it could resume work on the project, but declined to do so while the Iran-Iraq war continued. In April of that year, the U.S. State Department said, "We believe it would take at least two to three years to complete construction of the reactors at Bushehr." The spokesperson also said that the light water power reactors at Bushehr "are not particularly well-suited for a weapons program." The spokesman went on to say, "In addition, we have no evidence of Iranian construction of other facilities that would be necessary to separate plutonium from spent reactor fuel." The reactors were then damaged by multiple Iraqi air strikes from 1984 to 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war. Shortly afterwards Iraq invaded Iran and the nuclear program was stopped until the end of the war.

In 1990, Iran began to look outwards towards partners for its nuclear program; however, due to a radically different political climate and punitive U.S. economic sanctions, few candidates existed.

On 8 January 1995, Iran signed a contract with Russian company Atomstroiexport to resume work on the partially-complete Bushehr plant, installing into the existing Bushehr I building a 915 MWe VVER-1000 pressurized water reactor, with completion expected in 2007.^[3][4]

In response to American and European pressure on Russia, a new revised agreement was reached in September 2006, under which fuel deliveries to Bushehr were scheduled to start in March 2007 and the plant was due to come on stream in September 2007 after years of delays.^[5] However, already five years behind schedule, it was reported again on February 20, 2007 by Russian officials that the opening of Bushehr could be delayed further because Iran has allegedly fallen behind with the payments. A top Iranian nuclear official denied this and accused the Russians of deliberately delaying and politicising the issue under European and American pressure.^[6][7] Other Russian sources have made conflicting claims, saying the delays are caused by Iranian contractors not meeting their obligations. Iranians, on the other hand, claim the plant would have been finished long ago if Russians were not involved in the construction.

In December 2007 Russia started delivering nuclear fuel to the Bushehr nuclear power plant.^[8] On January 20, 2008 a fourth Russian shipment of nuclear fuel arrived in Iran destined for the Bushehr plant. Russia has pledged to sell 85 tons of nuclear fuel to the plant.^[9]

In March, 2009, the head of Russia's state nuclear power corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, announced that Russia had completed the construction of the plant. A series of pre-launch tests were conducted after the announcement.^[10] Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah has said that the Bushehr plant would begin producing 500 MW of its 1,000 MW capacity of electricity by 22 August 2009, and would be brought up to full capacity by the end of March 2010.^[11]

In September 22, 2009 it was reported that the first reactor was 96% complete and final testing would begin in the near future.^[12] In early October final testing was started.^[13] In January 2010, Kiriyenko announced to the public that the Bushehr reactor would be opening in the near-future, declaring 2010 the "year of Bushehr." ^[14]

A further two reactors of the same type are planned. The fourth unit was canceled.^[2]

Reactor data

References

See also

• Nuclear program of Iran
• Iran and weapons of mass destruction
• List of nuclear reactors