Iran to Send Russia First Advance Payment for Bushehr-2 NPP by Year-End

Iran will send the first advance payment to Russia to finance the ongoing construction of the Bushehr-2 nuclear power plant by the end of the year, a site official with the Russian manufacturing corporation said Monday.

BUSHEHR (Iran), (Sputnik) – Russian and Iranian nuclear officials signed a construction protocol at a Saturday ground-breaking ceremony marking the start of work on the Bushehr-2 in the southwestern Iranian province.

"This protocol specifies the terms of the start of work, taking into account the advance payments that Iran must make. The advance payment will be made by the end of the year, it will be paid in several tranches," Suren Ambartsumyan, a site leader with Russia’s Atomstroyexport foreign trade engineering firm, told reporters.

The Bushehr 2 project was rolled out by Russian nuclear experts in Tehran in 2014. Moscow and Tehran signed a deal to build the second and third reactors at the site in November that year, with an option of building six more in the future.

The Bushehr NPP will include two power units with a Water-Water Energetic Reactor, VVER-1000, the initial version of which was developed in Russia in the 1960s. Currently, this type of reactor is the most widespread in its series with 34 such operating reactors worldwide.

The cost of the Bushehr 2 project is estimated at $10 billion. Its implementation is planned to take 10 years.