Russia Building Iran's Nuclear Power Plant

[Guest Mikita]

Atomstroiexport is the Russian Federation's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly. The Russian nuclear vendor is building the first reactor power unit in Iranian Bushehr nuclear plant located 400 kilometers or 250 miles southwest of Tehran under a $1 billion contract signed in 1995. Originally intended to be the location of a German constructed reactor in the 1970s, the new Russian constructed reactor is being built to Russian designs.

 

On February 23, 1998, the U.S. State Department reaffirmed American opposition to the Iranian nuclear program, arguing that Iran has sufficient oil and gas reserves for power generation, and that nuclear reactors are expensive, unnecessary, and could be used for military purposes. Unsurprisingly that same energy policy logic was not applied to nuclear development elsewhere, like the United States.