Iran Loads Fuel Into Nuclear Power Plant

Iran started loading fuel into its Russian-built first nuclear power plant Saturday, a day after officials there declared victory for the country's nuclear program.

"With the launch of the Bushehr nuclear-power plant, our country will be among the few states in the world with complete control and in full command of their nuclear-fuel cycle," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, told the state news agency IRNA on Friday.

The plant, located in south of Iran on the shores of the Persian Gulf, was built in 1974 before the Islamic revolution that toppled the shah. The project was largely abandoned in 1979 but was revived in 1995 after Iran signed a $1 billion contract with Russia to help make the plant operational.

Since then, international concern and suspicions that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons delayed the project. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes and fueling the plant isn't banned under the United Nations sanctions against Iran. The Obama administration, which has previously been critical of Moscow's role in Bushehr, has largely voiced support for the plant launch.

Britain acknowledged Iran's right to build nuclear power stations but warned that concerns remain about the Islamic republic's atomic program. "The problem is Iran's continued refusal to satisfy the [International Atomic Energy Agency] and international community that its work on uranium enrichment and heavy water projects are exclusively peaceful," Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said Saturday.