Two weeks needed to load fuel in Iran nuclear reactor

TEHERAN - Iran will need another two weeks to complete the process of loading fuel into its first Russian-built nuclear power plant, Iranian atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said.

"From now on it will take 10 to 15 days for the 163 fuel rods to be moved into the main building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and then we have to transfer the fuel rods into the reactor," Salehi was quoted by state news agency IRNA as saying.

On August 21 Iran began loading the fuel rods, also supplied by Russia, into the nuclear power plant located in the southern port city of Bushehr and the entire loading was to be completed by September 5, after which it was to be transferred into the reactor, according to AFP's report.