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Construction and installation work formally started yesterday at the site of unit 2 of the Bushehrnuclear power plant in Iran, Atomproekt, the reactor design subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced today. The first foundation stone for units 2 and 3 of the plant was laid in a ceremony held at the construction site in southern Iran in September last year.

AtomStroyExport (ASE) - another Rosatom subsidiary and the general contractor for the Bushehr project - and Nuclear Power Production and Development Company (NPPD) of Iran signed an EPC turnkey contract for construction of the units at Bushehr in November 2014. The two VVER-1000 units will be built with Generation III+ technology, including the latest safety features, and have a combined capacity of 2100 MWe, ASE has said. During the ceremony held on 10 September, the two sides signed a protocol on the start of work on the project to build units 2 and 3, known as Bushehr II.

Russian-built Bushehr1 was connected to the national grid on 3 September 2011 and became the first nuclear power plant in the Middle East.

A ceremony to launch construction work yesterday was attended by representatives of the customer for the Bushehr II project, Iran's NPPD. They were project manager Mahmoud Jafari, Bushehr Nuclear Power plant director-general Hossein Ghaffari, the head of the Bushehr project Ali Reza Moradian, and members of parliament from Bushehr Province. ASE representatives included the director for the construction of the Bushehr plant, Suren Ambartsumyan.

Ambartsumyan said a "technologically competent" team of Russian and Iranian specialists had been formed for the first phase of the Bushehr project that had been able to "quickly navigate complex technical issues and contingencies", according to the Atomproekt statement. "The high potential of Iranian specialists will be actively involved in the construction of Bushehr II," he added. Ambartsumyan also said he was confident the new unit would be built to a high standard and according to schedule.

Bushehr units 2 and 3 are to be completed in 2024 and 2026, respectively.

Last September, ASE director Valery Limarenko said Rosatom is keen on the "wide use" of Iranian-made materials and would therefore invite Iranian manufacturing companies to compete to work on the project via contract tenders.

Rosatom has said previously that Bushehr II is expected to cost about $10 billion to build, and that the physical start-ups of unit 2 and unit 3 are planned for October 2024 and April 2026, respectively. Provisional acceptance of unit 2 by the Iranian customer is scheduled for August 2025 and that for unit 3 in February 2027.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

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Iran starts building unit 2 of Bushehr plant - World Nuclear News