Iran conducts tests on Bushehr nuclear plant

Iran has started tests on its Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant as part of preparations for its launch, an official said on Wednesday.

The official, Mohsen Shirazi, said the visiting head of Russia's state nuclear company, Sergei Kiriyenko, and his Iranian counterpart were at the 1,000-megawatt plant to inspect work that included injecting virtual fuel into rods.

"This process started 10 days ago. Lead is used instead of nuclear fuel," Shirazi told reporters at the site.

Kiriyenko, who is visiting Iran for the so-called pre-commissioning, said construction of the plant at the Gulf port of Bushehr was now complete.

"The construction stage of the nuclear power plant is over, we are now in the pre-commissioning stage, which is a combination of complex procedures," Kiriyenko told reporters in Bushehr.

Iran and Russia will also announce a date for the plant to go operational, the official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Russia took over construction at Bushehr in 1994 but completion of the plant was delayed for a number of reasons, particularly Western accusations that Iran's nuclear program is a cover for a weapons drive.

Russia says it is purely civilian and cannot be used for any weapons program.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in its latest report on Iran released last week, said it has been informed by Tehran that the loading of the fuel into the reactor is scheduled to take place only during the second quarter of 2009.

The fuel, supplied by Moscow, is currently under IAEA seal. All the main equipment at Bushehr has been installed by Russian contractor Atomstroiexport.

The start-up of the plant will be a leap forward in Iran's efforts to develop nuclear technology.

Shirazi said that if the tests were successful fuel rods with enriched uranium would be used instead of lead, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for power plants and also provide material for bombs if refined much further.

Analysts say Iran could become a central issue in relations between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and new U.S. President Barack Obama, who has said that the United States was prepared to talk to Tehran.

The construction stage of the nuclear power plant is over, we are now in the pre-commissioning stage, which is a combination of complex procedures

Russian state nuclear company chief Sergei Kiriyenko

Syria built missile facility at suspect site

Syria has told the IAEA that a suspect site bombed by Israeli planes in 2007 is now a missile facility, diplomats close to the IAEA revealed Wednesday.

The head of Syria's Atomic Energy Commission, Ibrahim Othman, made the revelation to a closed-door briefing of the International Atomic Energy Agency late Tuesday, diplomats who attended the meeting told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. alleges the remote desert site, known alternatively as Al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, had been a covert nuclear reactor being built with North Korea's help and very near completion, until it was razed to the ground by Israeli bombers in September 2007.

But Damascus has consistently rejected the claims, maintaining it was a disused military facility.