TEHRAN, Feb 25 (agencies): Some 35 years after construction started, Iran said it planned to begin test operations Wednesday at its first nuclear power station in the southern port of Bushehr, the official IRNA news agency said.
The initial tests will use lead instead of nuclear fuel, according to an Iranian official.
IRNA said the testing would be observed by Reza Aqazadeh, the head of the Iran Atomic Energy Organisation, and Sergei V. Kiriyenko, the head of Rosatom State Atomic Corporation of Russia. A Russian company took over the construction of the plant in 1995. A German company began building it in the mid-1970s but work was suspended after the Islamic revolution in 1979.
The Iranian authorities also invited a group of foreign journalists to witness the operation, which will renew debate in Washington and elsewhere about Iran's nuclear ambitions. While Tehran insists it wants to pursue nuclear power solely for civilian purposes, many Western countries believe it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
IRNA said the plant, about nine miles south of Bushehr, will have the capacity to produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
Mohsen Shirazi, an Iranian official, said some testing had already begun, Reuters reported. "This process started 10 days ago. Lead is used instead of nuclear fuel," Mr. Shirazi told reporters at the site.
Mr. Kiriyenko, the Russian official, said: "The construction stage of the nuclear power plant is over, we are now in the pre-commissioning stage, which is a combination of complex procedures," Agence France-Press reported.
Cooperation by Russian companies and individuals with some aspects of Iran's nuclear program dates back years.
