MOSCOW/TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2019) Iran is fully confident in the safety of the Bushehr nuclear power plant (NPP), which is being built in cooperation with Russia, Ali Akbar Salehi, vice president and head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, the two countries began the construction of the second power unit of the NPP.
"The Bushehr nuclear power plant is one which is completely safe and enjoys full safety. Its security is secured by our armed forces," Salehi said in a speech at the ceremony of the concrete placement of the unit, broadcast by the Press tv news network.
He noted that the project would be implemented on schedule.
During the ceremony Salehi and Rosatom's First Deputy CEO for Operations Management Alexander Lokshin exchanged symbolic concrete cubes after signing them, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in Iran told Sputnik, adding that then the "first concrete" was poured into the foundation of the future second power unit.
Russia and Iran agreed on the joint construction of Bushehr's second and third units, known as the Bushehr-2 project, back in November 2014. Two years later, the project was officially launched.
The second and the third power units will operate on Russian VVER-1000 reactors, which meet the highest safety requirements. They will have a combined capacity of 2,100 megawatts.
The second unit is expected to become functional in 2024 and the third one in 2026.
