"We maintain proper contact with the Russian side on the construction of the first reactor unit, and all political problems in this respect have already been solved," he said.
According to him, Russian representatives will come to Iran soon "to settle technical issues that are still to be addressed." Russia and Iran's nuclear authorities are discussing the possibility of construction of the second Busher reactor unit. According to Chief of the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Rumyantsev, Russian experts had to confront a hard task to make the first reactor - "to begin the construction of a nuclear power plant with trying to accommodate the Russian-made VVER-1000 reactor in a building erected previously according to Siemens's project, rather than with constructing the power plant main building." Nevertheless, "the reactor was accommodated successfully, and the first reactor unit of the Iranian nuclear power plant will soon be completed." "The physical turn-on of the unit is scheduled for 2005, and in the same year the reactor will begin to generate electric power," Rumyantsev said.
In 2003 Atomstroyeksport, the general contractor of the project, has transferred to Iran a feasibility study for the second reactor unit of the same power plant. Each reactor unit costs around USD1bn to build. Currently the construction project employs a thousand Russian engineers in Iran.
