By Dmitry Shlapentokh
Russians often express their displeasure with a country in a peculiar way. When the problem with Georgia flared in 2008 over the separatist republic of South Ossetia, Russian authorities suddenly discovered a serious problem with Georgian cognac and mineral water. Now, as Russia-Belarus tension grows, problems have been found with milk from Belarus.
The Kremlin can also express its mood in other ways beyond food and drink, as it is doing with the Bushehr nuclear plant it has been building in Iran since 1995. Russia is well aware of the importance of the plant, both for Iran, which needs the nuclear energy, and the United States, which views it as another step in the direction of Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.
Construction of the plant – two 1,300-megawatt pressurized water reactors – started in 1975 by Germany’s KWU. The completion date was planned for 1982, but in 1979 work was suspended following the Iranian revolution.
In 1995, Russian state-run company Atomstroiexport began building the first reactor, with startup scheduled for this year. In March, the head of Russia’s state nuclear power corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, announced that Russia had completed construction.
Pre-launch tests were then conducted and it is expected to be up to full capacity by the end of March 2010. The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, of which Iran is a member state, will oversee operation of the plant. Last month, though, Russian state-run RIA-Novosti quoted the head of Atomstroiexport, Dan Belenky, as saying the company was trying to alter the financing of the plant, for which Iran is paying Russia more than US$1 billion, and that the initial start-up would be delayed from August to an unspecified date.
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