Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom plans to increase the number of Russian specialists working at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant to 700, its chief executive, Alexey Likhachev, said on Wednesday, signalling an expansion of the project’s workforce and continued Russian involvement in Iran’s nuclear energy programme.
Likhachev said the company had no plans to withdraw its employees from the facility in southern Iran and intended to increase its presence there. “Not only will we not evacuate Russian employees from the Bushehr power plant, but we also have a plan to increase the power there,” he said.
The Rosatom chief added that the company wanted to expand the workforce at the plant to 700 people. The planned increase would involve more than 500 additional specialists, building on the 192 Russian experts currently working in construction and service operations at the facility.
The announcement comes as Russian and Iranian officials continue discussions on nuclear energy cooperation and the development of additional power-generation facilities in Iran.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Moscow on Tuesday night to attend the summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. During the visit, he also met Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The meeting followed earlier discussions between Putin and Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a Commonwealth of Independent States summit. After that meeting, Likhachev said Rosatom was considering several potential locations in Iran for the construction of additional nuclear power plants, including both large and small facilities.
According to the latest announcement, an agreement has now been signed covering sites for several new nuclear power units in Iran. The planned expansion would add to the existing Russian involvement at Bushehr, where specialists are engaged in construction and maintenance work.
The increase in personnel would represent a substantial expansion of the Russian workforce at the plant. Rosatom currently has 192 Russian experts working in construction and service operations, while the proposed total of 700 would require the addition of more than 500 personnel.
Likhachev’s remarks also indicate that Russia intends to maintain its nuclear cooperation with Iran while pursuing further projects beyond the existing Bushehr facility. The company has previously discussed the possibility of developing additional nuclear power plants at several locations across the country.
The latest agreement on sites for new power units provides a further step in those plans, although the announcement did not specify the locations, construction schedules or capacity of the proposed facilities.
Rosatom’s stated intention to increase its workforce at Bushehr comes alongside its broader plans for nuclear power development in Iran, with the company continuing construction and service operations at the existing plant while considering additional projects.
The proposed expansion would raise the number of Russian specialists at Bushehr from 192 to 700, according to Likhachev.
