Bushehr reaches full capacity

Monday, 3 September 2012

Power output from Iran's first nuclear power reactor at Bushehr has reached 100%, the Russian supplier AtomStroyExport (ASE) announced. The unit was connected to the grid almost a year ago.

Unit 1 of the Bushehr plant (Image: ASE)

The reactor reached full power at 6.47pm on 30 August, ASE said. This is the final stage in commissioning the unit, during which its equipment and systems will be test at full capacity.

German constructor Siemens KWU began work on two pressurized water reactors at the Bushehr site on the Persian Gulf in 1975, but work was abandoned in 1979. At the time, one unit was substantially complete and the second unit was around 50% complete, but the site was damaged by air strikes during the war between Iran and Iraq in 1984-1988.

However, in 1994, Minatom of Russia agreed with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to complete Bushehr unit 1 as a VVER-1000 unit, using mostly the infrastructure already in place. This plan also necessitated major changes, including fabrication of all the main reactor components in Russia under a construction contract with AtomStroyExport.

After years of delay, the Bushehr plant was finally connected to the grid on 4 September 2011, supplying around 60 MWe. Output from the 1000 MWe reactor has since been gradually be increased and has now reached 100%.

ASE's head of nuclear power plant construction in Iran Igor Mezenin said that the Bushehr plant is of a unique design. He commented, "Our nuclear industry has managed to integrate Russian technology into equipment built by the Germans, incorporating about 12,000 tonnes of German equipment. Much work was done to assess the condition and suitability of the German equipment, buildings and structures." He added, "The designers had to develop and implement a number of original ideas and technical know-how in order to adapt the Russian technology to the existing facilities at the site."

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News