nuclear power reactor at Bushehr next year. It will be built on the same site as the current Bushehr reactor plant.
Fereydun Abbas-Davani, the chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, announced the planned startup on state television. He did not say who would build the plant. The Russians have said they are eager to build it and no other foreign firm is likely to touch it, given the current international environment.
Davani did say that foreign contractors would be required for the construction.
Many Iranians do not want another contract with the Russians, who have a reputation for shoddy work. Iranians commonly blame Russian technology for frequent plane crashes in Iran, although American and European planes crash as well. The immense delay in the first Bushehr plant also reflects badly on Russian quality. The contract was signed in 1995 with a completion date of January 1999, but 12 1/2 years later, it remains unfinished. A few weeks ago, Iranian officials said the plant would come on line at 100 percent of capacity at the end of May. The latest announcement, however, is for completion in December.
Two reactors were originally planned for Bushehr in the 1970s. Buildings for both of them were started, then abandoned after the revolution when the new Islamic Republic canceled the Shah’s nuclear program as one of his many “prestige” projects that the revolution viewed as wasteful. Among the others canceled were the Tehran subway and the expressway from Tehran to the Caspian, both of which have been resuscitated along with the nuclear program as essential needs of the state.
When Iran contracted with Russia in 1995 to complete the first Bushehr reactor, it insisted that the existing building be used. The Russians said that was a poor decision since a Russian reactor would not fit in a site designed for a German reactor. But Iran refused to abandon the building, which was almost complete. The Russians have blamed many of the delays in missing the 1999 deadline for completion on Iran’s demand to use the old building.
Davani did not say if Iran would insist on the second reactor going into the other building at Bushehr. That building was said to be only about 15 percent complete when work stopped while the first building was about 85 percent complete.
It was not clear if actual construction is planned to start next year. State television’s website reported that Davani said Iran “will build” the plant next year while the Mehr news agency quoted him as saying Iran “will begin plans” for the second reactor next year.
Davani also said plans for a smaller 360-megawatt plant at Darkhovin near the Iraqi border in Khuzestan have been completed “and we are reviewing them.”
Iran has said that plant will be built entirely by Iranians.
The Shah had signed a contract with a French firm to build two large power reactors at Darkhovin, but little work had been done at the site before the revolution. In 1992, Iran signed a contract with China to build two 300-megawatt reactors there, but the Chinese later withdrew. Iran announced in 2008 that it would build one plant itself with completion in 2016. But no construction work has yet been started.
The Islamic Republic announced a decade ago that it intended to build nuclear power reactors generating 20,000 megawatts of electricity. It stated that shortly after a Russian official said Iran’s plans for enriching uranium for power plants made no economic sense for its very limited number of power plants.
A few years ago, Iran said it had picked locations for five such plants, but it has never announced them. Discussion of the 20,000-megawatt plan has disappeared from the public media.