Iran loads fuel at Bushehr nuclear plant

Iran started loading fuel into its first nuclear plant on Saturday after three decades of delay. Britain accepted its right to build the power station but, like other Western powers, claimed that Tehran has failed to prove that all its nuclear projects will be peaceful.

AFP

"Despite all pressures, sanctions and hardships forced by Western nations, we are witnessing Iran's peaceful nuclear activities through the start of the Bushehr power plant," Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi declared.

"This is the symbol of the heroic Iranian nation's resistance and determination in achieving its goals," he said.

The loading at the power station, near the port city of Bushehr in southern Iran, started in the presence of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Russian nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko said the "countdown" for the actual running of the plant had begun on Saturday.

The UN has imposed sanctions on Iran because of claims, led by the US and Israel, that Tehran is secretly planning to build nuclear weapons.

British Foreign Secretary Alistair Burt on Saturday conceded that Iran has the right to open Bushehr but defended the sanctions.

"The problem is Iran's continued refusal to satisfy the IAEA and international community that its work on uranium enrichment and heavy water projects are exclusively peaceful," he said in London.

The project, was first launched by the US-backed shah of Iran in the 1970s using contractors from German company Siemens. But it was shelved when the shah was ousted during the 1979 Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.