Russia to supply fuel to Iranian nuclear power plant in March 2007

Dec 13, 2006, 17:10 GMT

Moscow - Nuclear fuel destined for Iran's Bushehr power plant has been produced in Russia and will be shipped to the plant's Persian Gulf site in March, the Russian company that is building the plant said Wednesday.

The fuel, which is being held in 'responsible care' at a Siberian chemicals factory, will reach Iran via eight Russian transport planes, the news agency Interfax quoted an unidentified spokesman at Atomstroiexport as saying.

The statement came after Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency head Sergei Kiriyenko met with Iranian leaders in Tehran for talks on the two countries' nuclear cooperation.

The Iranian side had expressed hope the Bushehr plant would be launched on schedule - which, after a number of delays, now means September 2007 - and Kiriyenko said there were no impediments to that at the moment.

The first of two reactors at the site, the Atomstroiexport spokesman said, was '90 per cent complete.' The fuel shipments will be realized in March, as fuel shipments customarily arrive six months before a nuclear plant goes online.

The Russian delegation did, however, express dissatisfaction with Iran's lack of payment for the plant. Sergei Shmatko, head of Atomstroiexport, said Russia had advanced Tehran 140 million dollars toward the plant's 850-million-dollar price tag.

The two parties had agreed to establish a financial committee to analyze the situation, Shmatko added.

'The Iranian side put forth an advance for the (nuclear) fuel, and the final payment will be produced upon the delivery (of the fuel) to Bushehr,' the unidentified Atomstroiexport spokesman told Interfax.

Shmatko noted that Tehran had said it was prepared to pay Russia 20 million to 25 million US dollars per month for the project in Iran's south.

Russia agreed to complete the controversial reactor in the Islamic Republic in 1995, 16 years after Germany's Siemens abandoned the project it began.

The United States and its Western European partners fear Tehran could use the plant to advance its nuclear weapons programme.