BUSHEHR. Dec 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The total value of Russian contracts for the construction of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant will exceed USD1bn, Viktor Kozlov, general director of the Russian company Atomstroiexport, told reporters.
"As of today, Russia has signed contracts worth not less than USD1bn, and Iran has already paid half of this amount," he said.
To complete the construction of the first unit of the plant, Atomstroiexport needs to supply an additional 8,000 tonnes of equipment, and some 20% of the support equipment is yet to be purchased, Kozlov said. "The basic equipment of the nuclear power plant is already at the plant and it is currently being assembled," Kozlov said.
Work on 57 facilities of the plant has already been completed, and work on the remaining facilities is expected to be completed by May 2003, Interfax has learned. Eighty-three percent of the documentation on the project has been developed and forwarded to the plant.
Kozlov stressed that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is constantly inspecting the facility. "In 2002, some 50 IAEA missions visited the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant," he said.
Russia is building the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant under an intergovernmental agreement from August 25, 1992, on cooperation in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran, and also under an agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy from August 25, 1992.