Iran losing interest in nuclear power station: Russian official

"There's an unfortunate feeling that they have lost interest," RIA Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed official at federal nuclear agency RosAtom as saying, referring to the Iranian side.

"They are not financing the project properly. We have a definite impression that it's a charade of proper financing. The project has already become unprofitable for us.

"We will work according to the contract. If they pay, work will proceed. If they don't pay, it won't."

The RosAtom official said that for the first five months of the year Iran was supposed to pay 25 million dollars (18.6 million euros) a month, but had only paid 20 million dollars in total.

The Bushehr project has been a symbol of Russian friendship with Iran.

But it has been beset by delays and has been criticised by the United States, which has urged Moscow to suspend work.

Washington believes that Iran's stated aim of developing civilian nuclear energy is a cover for developing nuclear weapons, although it has not voiced suspicions about the Bushehr project itself.

The official added that there were doubts about a planned visit to Iran due at the end of this month by Sergei Shmatko, the head of the Russian company that builds nuclear power stations abroad, Atomstroiexport.

Shmatko might not go to Iran "because I don't see a reason to go there. If they pay, we'll build the whole thing," the official said.

Source

About headlines and content that gets changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.