Nuclear fuel rods will be loaded into Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor on Aug. 21, according to Moscow and Tehran. High-level Iranian and Russian officials are expected to attend the ceremony. The Bushehr nuclear power plant dates back to a deal made between the Shah of Iran and West Germany in the 1970s. After the shah fell, Tehran eventually reached an agreement with Moscow for Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) to deliver the 1,000-megawatt reactor and complete the facility. The first consignment of fuel rods was delivered in 2007, but for a decade now, Russia has been using the promise to complete Bushehr and Iran's dependence on Russian expertise and fuel as political leverage. The arrival of the fuel rods has been the last unknown factor on the completion of the facility, which has been all but finished for years.
