Russian nuclear contractor Atomstroyexport cannot complete the work on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant by the end of 2007, Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia’s Security Council said on Tuesday, April 17. Ivanov sited cash crunch and technical problems as reasons for the delay.

“It is clear that we have to extend the deadline. How long, we do not know. It is being studied by experts,” the Russian official said, quoted by Thomson Financial.

The completion of the power station by Atomstroiexport and the delivery of nuclear fuel by Russia, planned for this year, were delayed by what Moscow had earlier described as financial problems.

Russia had accused Iran of not paying the amounts agreed upon in a deal reached last September on the construction and nuclear fuel supply to the plant, but at the end of March, Moscow acknowledged that Tehran had resumed its payments.

Russia had been scheduled to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran in March, the power station would begin working in September and it would start producing energy in November.

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