About 700 Russian specialists are taking part in the construction of the second and third units of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, the head of Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom said on Monday.
“Two thousand-ton blocks are being built on the site, the second and the third. Work is progressing,” Rosatom’s Director General Alexey Likhachev told state-owned television channel Russia-1 TV.
Likhachev said construction of the new units was advancing with major structural components being installed.
The work, he added, involves around 3,000 specialists, including about 700 Russian citizens.
In September, Iranian state media reported that Likhachev and Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Eslami signed a memorandum on cooperation for small nuclear power plants in Iran.
In early June, Reza Banazadeh, head of the Bushehr facility announced that Iran plans to expand its nuclear power capacity over the next 18 years with the construction of two additional units at the Bushehr nuclear plant.
The second unit, he added, will take 10 years to complete and the third around eight years. Once finished, the three units would generate a combined 3,100 megawatts of electricity, he added.
Banazadeh said at the time that 2,000 Iranian specialists operate the Bushehr plant, which he described as a showcase of domestic capability.
“All critical roles, from control rooms to maintenance, are handled by Iranian experts,” he said.
Amid the Iran-Israel war in June, an Israeli military spokesperson cited by Reuters said on June 19 that Israel had struck the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant — an assertion Reuters reported the spokesperson later said had been made “by mistake.”
On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Israel had agreed to ensure the security of more than 200 Russian employees working at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
A day later, Likhachev said the situation at Bushehr nuclear power plant, where hundreds of Russian specialists work, was under control.
