Ground broken for Phase 2 of Bushehr NPP

An official ceremony to mark the beginning of work on a foundation pit was held at the main building of power unit No. 2 of Bushehr NPP (Bushehr-2 project) in the Bushehr Province, Iran on 31 October 2017. The ground was broken by Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev and Iranian Vice President, head of the Iranian atomic energy organization Ali Akbar Salehi. The ceremony was attended by heads of companies of the two countries, Russian and Iranian nuclear specialists, local authorities and residents of the city of Bushehr.

Two power units of 2,100MW will be constructed to the Russian design as Phase 2 under the contract signed in November 2014. They will be built near Bushehr-1 which is in operation. The Russian power units VVER-1000 are the reference project of Generation III+ which meets the most stringent post-Fukushima safety requirements.

The Bushehr-2 foundation stone was laid in September 2016. Bushehr-2 enters the implementation stage with the development of the foundation pit.

Before the ceremony, Alexei Likhachev and Ali Akbar Salehi visited the operating power unit Bushehr-1, the first in the Middle East. It was also built with the direct participation of Russian specialists who used the unique engineering know-how for the Russian VVER-1000 reactor. Since its start in 2011, Bushehr-1 has confirmed is operational reliability.

Welcoming the ceremony participants, the head of Rosatom noted that the experience of cooperation accumulated so far would help specialists of the two countries solve effectively any tasks of Bushehr-2 project.

“I am sure that this largest Russian-Iranian project is the symbol of our cooperation and is important for our generation and for our children. By date Bushehr-1 has already generated 25 billion kWh of electricity. This is a serious contribution to the economy of Iran, which gives an opportunity to channel additional funds into the development of the social sector and industry of the country. We do not stop, we move forward. Today we launched the full-scale work on Bushehr-2. I would like to emphasize that we will build here the power units VVER-1000 of Generation III+ which have long proven their worth in Russia and other countries and which, in the opinion of many experts, are the best in the world,” Alexei Likhachev said.

In his reply, head of the Iranian atomic energy organization Ali Akbar Salehi said: “Today, we have witnessed the ground breaking for the second power unit of Bushehr NPP. We are on schedule, even somewhat ahead of the date due. I hope that during 7 years we will see this unit come online  and in 2.5 years we will see the commissioning of Unit 3 of this NPP within Phase 2 of the plant.”

The two sides also confirmed their readiness to expand cooperation in the field of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to explore the theme of multiple-module small and medium-sized reactors.

Bushehr Phase 2 is financed by the Iranian side. The General Contractor is ASE (Atomstroyexport) which is part of Rosatom. There are plans to build a pit for Unit 3 in 2018 and to pour the first concrete in Unit 2 in 2019.