Iran to connect Bushehr nuclear power plant to national grid soon

Iran plans to connect the country's first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr to its national power grid in the next few weeks, the country's nuclear chief announced.Speaking to FNA, Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said that the decision has been announced by Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoun Abbasi in a meeting with Iranian parliamentarians this morning.He added that during the session, Mr. Abbasi briefed the lawmakers about Bushehr nuclear power plant's construction and launch process and its advancements as well as his organization's future plans."As regards the AEOI's future plans, Mr. Abbasi said that they try to connect the Bushehr nuclear power plant's power output to the national grid by the end of Ordibehsht (mid May 2013)"," Naqavi Hosseini stated.Last month, Abbasi said that the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant was still under tests and would soon be connected to the national power grid for test run.Abbasi rejected the media reports about a halt in the operation of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, and stated, "The plant is under test, and thus, its connection to and disconnection from the (national) grid is natural due to the technical problems."He said that recently a problem occurred in a power generator of the plant and the Russian contractor has transferred the necessary equipments and is trying to prepare the reactor.In December, Sergey Kiriyenko, the general director of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said that Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is expected to be commissioned by mid-2013."Everything there has been launched," he said at the time.The power plant's utmost power for the generation of electricity is 1,000mw.Iran signed a deal with Russia in 1995, according to which the plant was originally scheduled for completion in 1999. However, the project was repeatedly delayed by the Russian side due to the intense pressure exerted on Moscow by the United States and its western allies. Russia finally completed physical construction of the plant last summer, but the facility still needed one more year to gradually reach full power generation capacity.On October 26, 2010, Iran started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the initial phase of launching the nuclear reactor.In 2011 Iran started using 500MW of nuclear-generated electricity, half the nominal capacity of the Bushehr power plant.Iran held a ceremony in September 2012 to mark the preliminary launch of the Bushehr plant.The facility operates under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).