Senior Iranian and Russian officials attended celebrations Monday for the official launch of the 1000-megawatt Bushehr plant in southern Iran.
It began to generate between 350 to 400 megawatts of electricity, equal to 35 to 40 percent of the reactor’s full capacity.
The Russian-built plant was connected to the national power grid for a test run Sept. 4, generating 60 megawatts.
The launch of the plant has been delayed for years. The US and its allies accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the claim.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN atomic watchdog said Monday that Iran had been more open to inspectors in a recent visit to the country’s nuclear facilities but that its cooperation was still insufficient.
“Iran demonstrated greater transparency than on previous occasions” during the trip last month, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano told a regular meeting of the agency’s board of directors in Vienna.
Amano told the IAEA’s 35-nation board he hoped to “set out in greater detail the basis for the agency’s concerns so that all member states are fully informed.” Such a move by Amano would add to pressure on Iran, one of the world’s largest oil producers which is facing tightening international sanctions pressure over a nuclear program the West suspects has military aims. “Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable the agency to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities,” Amano said. He spoke a day after Iran said it was ready for fresh nuclear talks with major powers, and had sent a letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The Islamic Republic has in recent weeks signaled increased openness and willingness to cooperate with the IAEA about its disputed nuclear work, which it says is for purely peaceful purposes. But Western diplomats have dismissed this as an Iranian “charm offensive” without substance and an apparent attempt by Tehran to buy time, while it refuses to bow to demands to halt sensitive uranium enrichment.
Since talks between global powers and Iran foundered in January, Russia has advocated a phased plan in which Tehran would address concerns that it may be seeking nuclear weapons, and be rewarded with an easing of sanctions.
Iran has often said it is willing to resume talks. But its insistence that other countries recognize its right to enrich uranium is a major stumbling block, particularly for Western diplomats.
