Iran’s Deputy Minister of Energy, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, has announced that Tehran and Moscow have agreed on the prompt return of Russian nuclear specialists to Iran, where they will resume work on the construction of units 2&3 of the Bushehr NPP.
Speaking to reporters in Bishkek on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Energy Ministers’ Meeting in Kyrgyzstan, he said the agreement was reached during a meeting with Russia’s Minister of Energy, Sergey Tsivilyov, adding that Russia was ready continue its involvement in Iran’s nuclear projects.
Russia is assisting with the construction of units 2&3 at the Bushehr NPP, where the first unit with a 915 MWe VVER reactor has been in operation since 2011. Construction of the Bushehr NPP began in 1975 with a West German company but stopped in 1979 after the start of the Islamic revolution. In 1992, Russia and Iran signed an agreement to continue construction of the station using Russian VVER-1000 technology. Unit 1 was officially transferred to Iran in September 2013. First concrete for unit 2 was poured in 2019 and the core catcher was installed in 2024.
However, work on the new units was paused after Russia pulled out more than 600 of its employees from the plant after it was targeted four times by strikes during the US and Israeli attacks on Iran that began on 28 February. Following a tentative ceasefire in April Iran asked if work could resume on the plant.
Currently, about 2,200 employees from Iranian contracting organisations have already returned to the site. Following the evacuation of Russian specialists 20 Russian volunteers had remained at the plant and four more people at the central office in Tehran.
