Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed the development of his country's nuclear industry after Iran received the last batch of nuclear fuel from Russia for its first nuclear power plant, a move signifying the approaching launch of the reactor.
Speaking on Wednesday in the city of Bushehr, which is located close to the power plant, Ahmadinejad said that the nation of Iran would have nuclear electricity by this time next year, the Reuters news agency reported. Russian nuclear experts, however, estimate the time between the delivery of the nuclear fuel and the launch of the reactor at six months maximum.
Ahmadinejad also stressed his nation's resolution to go on with the nuclear program despite pressure from the international community. "If you (Western powers) imagine that the Iranian nation will back down you are making a mistake," the Iranian President said. "On the nuclear path we are moving towards the peak," he added.
Iran's state-run information agency IRNA has reported that Iran received the eighth and last batch of nuclear fuel for the Bushehr plant from Russia on Monday. The first delivery took place on December 17 last year, long after the initially announced deadline.
Russia cited payment problems as a reason for the delays with fuel deliveries, but sources in the nuclear industry said that the pressure from the international community could be the reason behind the project's stall.
But late last year the U.S. intelligence issued a report in which it said that the scale of the nuclear threat coming from Iran had been hugely overestimated, leading to an ease in relations and eventually to the start of fuel deliveries.
After this, U.S. President George W. Bush said he welcomed the Bushehr project as it allowed the Iranian nuclear program to remain under Russian and international control as the Bushehr power plant is being built under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
However, last week Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China agreed on the outlines of the U.N. resolution suggesting to introduce visa and financial sanctions against Iran if it does not scrap its own nuclear research.
By Kirill Bessonov
