The workshop entitled “25 Years of Cooperation between Russia and Iran in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy: New Prospects under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Annex III” was held in association with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).
The attendees exchanged their views on the role of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in ensuring Iran’s predictable and stable civil nuclear cooperation with Russia and other countries in the areas specified in JCPOA’s Annex III providing for a wide range of areas for joint initiatives with Iran. The workshop brought together representatives of all the signatories to JCPOA, including EU and IAEA member states.
It was stressed at the workshop that both Russia and Iran were committed to JCPOA and considered it to be a well-balanced operational document made in the best interests of all the parties involved in its development and adoption.
On the second day of the workshop, Iranian experts and other participants had a chance to become acquainted with the activities of Rosatom’s Technical Academy and the Russian Research Institute of Radiology and Agricultural Ecology in Obninsk (Kaluga Region, Russia).
The workshop has demonstrated that the existing bilateral cooperation based on mutual trust and respect between Russia and Iran is a good basis for further development of joint civil nuclear initiatives between the countries.
The nuclear power plant in Bushehr is a central point of the nuclear cooperation between Russia and Iran. Rosatom has built the facility’s Unit 1 and continues building other units. On 10 September 2016, a groundbreaking ceremony was held to mark the start of construction of Bushehr Units 2 and 3. As Valery Limarenko, CEO of ASE Group, said at the IAEA General Conference in September this year, ASE has already started working on the construction of these two units. He said the construction team had begun preparing the entire site for the new power facilities and intended to start excavating the foundation pit for Unit 2. The contract for the construction of two new power units at Bushehr was signed by Russia and Iran in November 2014. Units 2 and 3 will be based on the Russian-designed VVER-1000 reactors meeting the most stringent post-Fukushima safety requirements. Bushehr II has been designed by AtomEnergoProekt, with AtomStroyExport acting as the general contractor (both companies belong to ASE Group).
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The nuclear power plant in Bushehr is a facility without peer on the global scale. Rosatom managed to integrate Russian equipment into the German structural design and use nearly 12,000 tons of German equipment. Designers had to conceive, develop and apply a number of unique technical solutions to adapt the Russian technologies to the existing on-site structures. For example, core equipment of the nuclear island and the turbine were manufactured in Russia, while the building itself was designed by German companies. The nuclear island had to be redesigned to allow for the installation of a Russian-designed VVER reactor. The turbine was also redesigned to be mounted in the turbine island designed and built by Kraftwerk Union AG.
