MOSCOW - Russia dampened on Thursday Iranian hopes of an imminent launch of the Bushehr nuclear power station Moscow is building in the Islamic republic, saying it would not be launched earlier than the end of 2008.A spokeswoman for the Russian contractor on the flagship project, Atomstroiexport, confirmed that it would take at least a year to start the power station. “We can predict that the Bushehr station will be launched no earlier than the end of 2008 due to the current situation,” Irina Yesipova told AFP.
On Tuesday the deputy head of IranÂ’s atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, said he hoped the 1,000 megawatt plant in the southern city of Bushehr could come on line within three months at up to 200 megawatts before being cranked up to full capacity nine months later.
Yesipova said the Russian timeframe was not a question of delays, but of the amount of time needed to deliver fuel and carry out tests on the station. Yesipova said it would take nearly two months to complete the delivery of nuclear fuel to Bushehr. Six months after that tests would start on launching the station itself, she said.
| I wouldn't short-cut the testing, Mahmoud, given Russian quality and all. Of course, this raises all sorts of interesting possibilities for a sneaky, quiet CIA, assuming we had one of those handy ... |
Referring to the Iranian side’s expectations of a faster launch, she said “the official who made this statement was probably not appraised of the technical issues. There is a technical schedule of work and we cannot deviate from it.”