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Iran connects Bushehr nuclear power plant to national grid

Xinhua, September 5, 2011

• Iran has connected its first nuclear power plant, Bushehr, to the national grid with a supply of 60 megawatts, the state IRIB TV reported Sunday.

  "The Bushehr nuclear power plant with the power of 60 megawatts was connected to the national grid at 23:29 local time (19:59 GMT) Saturday," the TV said.

  According to the report, the move was taken to prepare the necessary conditions for initial utilization of the power plant with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

  Necessary tests will be carried out in the following days to make sure of the compatibility of the connection, said the report.

  Iran will hold a ceremony on Sept. 12 in the Bushehr nuclear power plant to formally launch the preliminary utilization of the plant, whose construction was initially began in 1975 by several German companies.

  The construction was halted when the United States imposed an embargo of hi-tech supplies on Iran after the 1979 revolution.

  Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the construction in 1998, but the completion of the plant's construction has been postponed several times due to technical and financial challenges and pressure from the United States.

  The West suspects that Iran's uranium enrichment may be meant for producing nuclear weapons. The allegations have been denied by Iran, which says its nuclear program is only for peaceful use.

  Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi said earlier that Iran was going to install new generation of centrifuges in its uranium enrichment sites and would increase its 20-percent uranium enrichment output by three times.

  French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that Iran's ambitions to build long-range ballistic missiles and its "military nuclear program" may convince some unnamed countries to launch a preventive attack against Iranian military and nuclear sites.

  Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency on Sunday quoted Iran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying that an IAEA report published Friday on Iran's nuclear program is a "step forward."

  The IAEA report, which said Iran appears to be working with the agency on parts of its nuclear program as it had promised earlier, "contains positive points, which were not mentioned in previous reports, thus this issue is a step forward," Soltanieh said.

  Certain misunderstandings over Iran's nuclear activities have been cleared up and the inspections on the country's centrifuge research centers by IAEA have proven that Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful, according to the report.

  Soltanieh said Iran has been transparent in its cooperation with the IAEA. Iran has produced 4,543 kg of low-enriched uranium and 70.8 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium, he was quoted as saying.

  However, the report said Iran continues to defy the UN resolutions amid "increasing" concerns that it may be developing nuclear weapons.

  An Iranian lawmaker Saturday called on the IAEA to avoid " unreal" information in its reports on Iran, saying the IAEA Board of Governors "is expected to open a new chapter in interactions and cooperation with Iran, considering the Islamic republic's new steps in cooperation with the IAEA," the satellite Press TV reported.

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