Russian high-ranking officials to visit Bushehr start-up ceremony

TEHRAN (Itar-Tass) - The Bushehr nuclear power plant
will be officially inaugurated in Iran's southern province on Monday.
Taking part in the ceremony will by Russian Energy Minister Sergei
Shmatko, the head of the Russian state-run nuclear power corporation
Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, the
president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereydoon
Abbasi-Davani and Iran's Energy Minister Majid Namjoo.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant was started in 1975 by Germany's
Kraftwerk Union AG - Siemens' subsidiary, but the construction was brought
to a halt after Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. On January 8, 1995, the
Russian-Iranian contract was signed to resume the construction of the
first power-generating unit. In 1998 the two countries inked an addendum
to the contract on the plant's turnkey construction by Russia's
Atomstroiexport.
"We've been waiting for this event for 35 years," Iran's Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told a news conference in Tehran on Sunday
describing this event "as a big holiday for Iran". "Finally, the Islamic
Republic of Iran with the support of Russian specialists brought the
plant's construction to completion."