BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 22. Iran has increased its labor force by up to 4,000 people for the commissioning of the 2nd and 3rd phases of the Bushehr nuclear power plant (NPP), Iranian Vice President and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami said at a Cabinet meeting in Tehran, Trend reports.
According to him, a total of 200 people were working there when the construction of Bushehr NPP Phases 2 and 3 began.
Eslami noted that employees of Bushehr nuclear power plants did not expect the plant to continue operating in 2022 due to debts and certain problems with a foreign side. However, as a result of steps taken by the government, it ranked No. 1 among profitable power plants in the country last year, and its output rose to 7.46 billion kilowatt hours.
The first unit of Iran's Bushehr NPP started operation in 2011. The operation of the unit was handed over to the Iranian company by the Russian Atomic Company in 2013. Since 2013, this unit has produced a maximum of 1,000 megawatt hours of electricity. Over the past 10 years, electricity production at Bushehr NPP has amounted to more than 65 billion kilowatt-hours.
To note, the construction of Bushehr NPP Units 2 and 3 started in 2017 on an area of 50 ha. Once commissioned, each of these units will be able to produce 1,057 megawatts of electricity. The commissioning of these two units will save 10 million barrels of crude oil or 1.6 bcm of gas per year and will prevent the release of 7 million tons of polluting gases into the environment.
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