Rosatom to send 508 more Russian nuclear specialists to Iran's Bushehr plant, taking total to 700

Russia's state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has taken a major plan to expand its technical presence at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran. It has decided to send 508 more Russian engineers and specialists to the plant, taking the total number of Russian specialists there to 700.

Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev confirmed the information on Wednesday, according to Iran's Mehr news agency.

Expressing determination to keep the plant's operations running, Likhachev said Rosatom would not withdraw Russian staff from the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Instead, the corporation plans to increase generation capacity there.

He said Rosatom wants to raise the number of staff at the Bushehr plant to 700.

At present, 192 Russian specialists are working on construction and technical maintenance at the Bushehr plant. With the new 508 joining them, the total number of Russian specialists at the plant will stand at 700.

The announcement came just after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Moscow on Tuesday night to attend a summit of the international Gas Exporting Countries Forum. There he held a high-level bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier, after meeting Putin on the sidelines of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit, the Rosatom chief had said Russia was considering several sites for building new small- and large-scale nuclear power plants in Iran.

He said a formal agreement on selecting sites for some new power units had recently been signed as part of that process.

With the decision to increase specialist numbers at Bushehr, Rosatom's technical role in Iran's nuclear power programme is set to expand further.