TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran said on Tuesday that its much-delayed nuclear power plant, where testing began last month, would start operating by August 22.

The 1,000-megawatt Russian-built plant in the southern port city of Bushehr will first generate around 500 megawatts by August 22, Energy Minister Parviz Fattah said, quoted by state television's website.
The Russian federal nuclear company which is constructing the plant has so far declined to give a date for the start-up.
“By the end of the Iranian month of Mordad (August 22), 500 megawatts of the 1,000 megawatt Bushehr nuclear plant will be transmitted to the national grid,” Fattah said.
“The remaining 500 megawatts will be transmitted in the second half of the (Iranian) year,” which ends March 2010.
On March 4, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced in parliament that the plant would begin operating by September.
Russian and Iranian officials began testing the plant on February 25, as Tehran pressed on with its nuclear program despite Western opposition.
Moscow supplied the fuel for the plant in 2008 but it is currently sealed by the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been investigating Iran's nuclear drive for the past six years.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Moscow's federal nuclear agency, announced when tests began that construction of the plant was complete but he did not set a date for its commissioning.