IRAN TEST RUN ATOMIC POWER PLANT

Russian-built Bushehr plant is expected to fully operational soon

Tehran: Iran moves a step closer to joining the nuclear club today by beginning a test run of its Russian-built atomic power plant.
Officials in Tehran said that the Bushehr plant would undergo operational tests during a visit by Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.

Mr Kiriyenko is travelling to Iran to discuss completion of the $1 billion (£695 million) project, which is running almost three years behind schedule after repeated delays caused by disputes over payment.
Iran’s atomic energy organisation said that the power station was now expected to start work in the first half of this year. Russia said that today’s test would not involve nuclear fuel.
Tehran insists that its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes to overcome electricity shortages in its economy.
But the United States and European Union suspect that Iran is secretly building a nuclear bomb and the United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions over the regime’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will meet next week to consider the latest report by the director-general, Mohamed ElBaradei, on Iran, amid continuing concern over the Islamic republic’s intentions.
The IAEA reported last week that inspectors had discovered an additional 209 kilograms (461lb) of low-enriched uranium, a third more than was previously thought to be held.
The find took Tehran over the threshold of the “nuclear breakout capacity” of a tonne of fissile material, the amount that is sufficient to make a bomb.
Courtesy: WorldNews, Times On Line and Google