Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant to join national grid in April

NEW DELHI - Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said the country’s Bushehr nuclear power plant is to join the national power grid in early April.

Salehi had earlier said the plant could join the national power grid sometime around mid-February.

He said on Friday that having a safe facility is more important than rushing to the production stage, Xinhua quoted a local satellite channel Press TV, as reporting.

He rejected reports that computer systems in Bushehr had been infected by a virus called Stuxnet, and said the computer worm cannot go beyond personal computers and enter the facility’s main systems.

Commenting on some media reports that the US and Israel were behind a cyber attack on Iranian computer installations, Salehi warned against the consequences of such attacks.

“If anything happens to a nuclear plant its repercussions will not be confined to one border and they should know better that such moves could affect them, too,” he said.

The completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant was first scheduled for 1999. But it was postponed several times amid mounting technological and financial challenges and pressure from the US. (ANI)