Launch date for Iran's first nuclear plant to be announced today

Iran and Russia will today announce a date for the Islamic republic's first nuclear power plant to go operational

Iran and Russia will today announce a date for the Islamic republic's first nuclear power plant to go operational.

"The exact date for the start of operations at Bushehr nuclear plant will be announced at the plant on Wednesday," the spokesman for Russia's federal nuclear agency, Sergei Novikov, said in Moscow.

Iran plans to carry out a dry run on Wednesday at the much-delayed 1,000-megawatt plant, which it has been building in the Gulf port of Bushehr with Russian assistance.

Novikov stressed that the operation would involve "virtual fuel not nuclear fuel rods".

Iran announced on Sunday that it planned to "pre-commission" the plant this week without specifying what the operation entailed.

Russia took over construction of the plant in 1994, but completion has been delayed due to a number of factors, particularly Western accusations that Iran's nuclear programme is cover for a nuclear weapons drive, something Tehran strongly denies.

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