Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant into the national grid: FM

 Iran's Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Tuesday that his country is acquiring ready to connect Bushehr nuclear power plant to the national grid in one month, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Talking to reporters, Salehi said, "the power plant is approaching steam production stage and we hope that, inside the following month, the steam production capacity of the plant to reach to a point to ensure that it might be fed into turbine to create electricity," said IRNA.

"To be tested, the power plant will join the (national) grid a number of times at the begin," he was quoted as saying.

"In the due time, the power plant will probably be inaugurated officially inside the presence of a few of the foreign media," stated Salehi.

Asked regardless of whether the Russian president or premier will attend the opening ceremony, he stated that "Tehran will announce its opinion about it in due time," based on IRNA.

Last week, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi stated the Bushehr nuclear power plant would join the national grid soon.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier this month that Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant will probably be operational within weeks.

Construction of the Bushehr plant was started in 1975 by numerous German organizations. However, the work halted when the United States imposed an embargo on hi-tech supplies to Iran following the 1979 revolution. Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the construction in 1998.

Completion of the plant's construction was postponed a number of times by mounting technical and monetary challenges and pressure from the U.S..

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