Iran confirms launch of its first nuclear power plant

（单词翻译）

    TEHRAN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI（原子能组织)) Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed on Friday next week's launch of his country's first nuclear power plant.
    "We are getting ready to transfer(转机) fuel of Bushehr Power Plant to the pool located near the heart of reactor¹ next week," Salehi said as quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
    He said the project will take seven to eight days.
    The Russian Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) said earlier in the day that the launch of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran has been set for Aug. 21.
    One day earlier, Bushehr nuclear power plant workshop Chief Mahmoud Jafari said that the main tests and inspections² of the power plant had been successfully carried out during the last six months.
    Salehi once said on July 7 the Bushehr nuclear power plant is to become operational in the Iranian month of Shahrivar (Aug. 23- Sept. 22).
    Bushehr is located in one of Iran's hottest districts（区域,地区） on the Persian Gulf³ coast. The plant construction started in the 1970s by several German companies, who pulled out following a U.S. embargo⁴ on high-tech⁵ supplies to Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
    Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the plant construction in 1998.
    The start-up date has been postponed⁶ for a number of times. It was originally scheduled for September 2007 but was delayed by serious financing shortage.
    Russia has been helping⁷ Iran build the plant since the mid- 1990s. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had promised Russia would start up the reactor at the Bushehr plant this summer.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)