UN lauds safety at Iran's Russian-built nuke plant

Louis Charbonneau, Reuters:

Tehran appears committed to safety at its Bushehr nuclear power plant, which a consortium of Russian companies is constructing in Iran, a senior nuclear safety expert at the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday. ... READ MORE

"So far so good," Ken Brockman, director of nuclear installation safety at the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters when asked about Iran's commitment to safety standards at the 1,000-megawatt Bushehr reactor.

"I've seen many applications out there where the Iranians have identified construction that did not meet their quality standards and they've been very aggressive in going in and replacing it and making sure it does," he said.

Brockman said that the IAEA, in cooperation with the Russian government and regulatory authority, has been providing a wide range of technical assistance and expertise to Iran to ensure the plant is run safely when it goes on line in late 2006.

"It's a commercial nuclear power plant and that's the aspect in which we're providing this particular guidance and assistance to the Islamic republic of Iran," he said. ...