Iran loads fuel rods in Bushehr reactor core, plant to connect to grid in February

Iran yesterday started loading uranium fuel rods into the core of its first nuclear power plant, thus reaching the stage considered the last major step in starting up the long-delayed Russia-built reactor.

According to the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Ali-Akbar Salehi, injecting 163 fuel rods into the core of the Bushehr reactor had started and the plant would join the national grid in mid-February, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

He said, "Although it is an approximate date, we hope that if everything goes according to the schedule, we could see the plant connected to the national grid in mid-February.''

According to officials, the fuelling of the Bushehr plant, which Salehi says is one of the most sensitive nuclear power plants in the world, showed that despite sanctions meant to curb Iran's unclear enrichment, a major concern for the West, the country's nuclear programme was on track.

Calling on Iran to address concerns related to its nuclear aims, Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in Moscow that he was requesting Iran to take concrete measures for the full implementation of its obligations.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said yesterday that Iran was entitled to use nuclear power for peaceful civil use but not  for nuclear weapons.