Iran’s Bushehr nuke plant full-capacity launch scheduled for August

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, Iran’s first, is scheduled to run at full capacity in August, the chief of the main contractor said on Thursday, July 19, RIA Novosti said.

“Bushehr is planned to reach 100 percent capacity this August,” said Valery Limarenko, director of NIAEP, the management company of Atomstroyexport.

The construction of Bushehr has taken more than three decades and has been dogged by delays. Russia signed a contract with Iran in February 1998 to complete the plant, which German companies first began back in 1975.

Bushehr was officially launched on August 21, 2010, when fuel was loaded into the reactor, making the plant an active nuclear facility. On May 8, 2011, the reactor achieved a sustained nuclear reaction and ran at a minimum power level for final commissioning tests.

The plant was officially connected to the national grid in September 2011, when it ran at 40 percent capacity. As of February 15, it was running at 75 percent of its power generating capacity and was scheduled to reach full capacity in May.