Tweet
IRAN'S FIRST NUCLEAR POWER PLANT PROVIDES ELECTRICITY
AZG DAILY
06-09-2011
Iran's first nuclear power plant has finally begun to provide
electricity to the national grid, official media reported on Sunday,
a long-delayed milestone in the nuclear ambitions of a country the
West fears is covertly try to develop atomic bombs.
"The Atomic Energy Agency announced that atomic electricity from
Bushehr power plant joined the national grid with a power of around
60 megawatts on Saturday at 2329 (1859 GMT)," the official news agency
IRNA reported.
The start-up will come as a relief to Tehran after many years of
delays and false starts at the plant it hopes will show the world it
has joined the nuclear club despite sanctions imposed in an attempt
to curb its disputed nuclear progress.
The $1-billion, 1,000-megawatt Bushehr plant will be formally
inaugurated on September 12, by which time it will be operating at
40 percent capacity, Hamid-Khadem Qaemi, spokesman for the Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), told the state-controlled Arabic
language TV station al-Alam.
The AEOI was not immediately available to comment.
The plant on the Gulf coast is the first of what Iran says will become
a network of nuclear facilities that will reduce its reliance on its
abundant fossil fuels and is a showpiece of what it says is a purely
peaceful atomic programme.
Bushehr's start-up comes with Russia pushing to revive talks between
global powers and Iran about its separate uranium enrichment work,
seen abroad as a potential proliferation threat since highly refined
uranium fuels atomic bombs.
Iran says it is enriching uranium only to lower levels suitable for
power plant fuel or medical and agricultural uses.
But it has also started shifting its most sensitive enrichment
operations to a mountain bunker that would be better protected against
a possible pre-emptive U.S. or Israeli military strike, Reuter reports.
From: A. Papazian
AZG DAILY
06-09-2011
Iran's first nuclear power plant has finally begun to provide
electricity to the national grid, official media reported on Sunday,
a long-delayed milestone in the nuclear ambitions of a country the
West fears is covertly try to develop atomic bombs.
"The Atomic Energy Agency announced that atomic electricity from
Bushehr power plant joined the national grid with a power of around
60 megawatts on Saturday at 2329 (1859 GMT)," the official news agency
IRNA reported.
The start-up will come as a relief to Tehran after many years of
delays and false starts at the plant it hopes will show the world it
has joined the nuclear club despite sanctions imposed in an attempt
to curb its disputed nuclear progress.
The $1-billion, 1,000-megawatt Bushehr plant will be formally
inaugurated on September 12, by which time it will be operating at
40 percent capacity, Hamid-Khadem Qaemi, spokesman for the Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), told the state-controlled Arabic
language TV station al-Alam.
The AEOI was not immediately available to comment.
The plant on the Gulf coast is the first of what Iran says will become
a network of nuclear facilities that will reduce its reliance on its
abundant fossil fuels and is a showpiece of what it says is a purely
peaceful atomic programme.
Bushehr's start-up comes with Russia pushing to revive talks between
global powers and Iran about its separate uranium enrichment work,
seen abroad as a potential proliferation threat since highly refined
uranium fuels atomic bombs.
Iran says it is enriching uranium only to lower levels suitable for
power plant fuel or medical and agricultural uses.
But it has also started shifting its most sensitive enrichment
operations to a mountain bunker that would be better protected against
a possible pre-emptive U.S. or Israeli military strike, Reuter reports.
From: A. Papazian