A Russian company tasked with building Iran's first nuclear plant says UN sanctions do not apply to the plant due to its peaceful nature. Russia's Atomstroiexport, nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, said the project is going on as scheduled and faces no problem. "Bushehr nuclear plant is under no sanction because it is a nuclear center for peaceful purposes," the company's spokeswoman Irina Yesipova told IRNA on Wednesday.
Some 1,800 experts are working to complete the construction of the nuclear plant.
Yesipova declined to reveal the exact date of the launch of the plant but noted that "we are doing our best to launch the plant as soon as possible."
Iran and Russia signed an agreement on nuclear cooperation in 1992, and Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly signed a contract in January 1995 to build Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. The plant was originally scheduled to come on stream in 1999, but the project has faced numerous delays.