Iranian Nuke Plant in Testing Phase

(Bushehr, Iran) Located on the coast across the Persian Gulf from Kuwait, Iran's first nuclear power plant began hot functional testing yesterday.

The 1,000-megawatt facility, built with Russian assistance under a $1 billion contract, is being tested without nuclear fuel. A dummy core is placed in the reactor while the primary system and all supporting systems are made operational.

Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the test was going well and engineers told him that they expected no problems in the test run.

"Today was one of the most important days for the Iranian nation," Aghazadeh told reporters. "We are approaching full exploitation of this plant."

Remarking in disagreement, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said:

"This should be understood as very bad news for the whole of the international community."

At least a couple months of testing will be required before nuclear fuel can be placed in the reactor.