Iran to expand Bushehr nuclear power plant

• 5 years ago (2019-05-01)
• David Flin

Middle East 326 Nuclear 659

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Iran has announced that it will move forward on construction of two additional units at Bushehr, as part of an agreement with Russia’s Rosatom. Bushehr 1, a 1000 MW Russian-built VVER-1000, began commercial operation in September 2013.

The Bushehr Phase 2 project will include two reactors with a combined capacity of 2100 MW. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation (AEOI) said: “Everything is moving ahead in an excellent manner. I was in Bushehr two or three days ago, and the Bushehr 2 and Bushehr 3 power plants are being constructed.” He said that infrastructure for the two units was in place.

AEOI said construction would take 10 years, and would cost $10 billion. Rosatom said the reactors are AES-92 Generation III+, based on the VVER-1000 V-392 reactor. The World Nuclear Association said it expects commercial operation of these plants to commence in 2024 or 2025.