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The head of Russia's state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom said Sunday that the company plans to increase its staff at Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant to 100 by the fall, as long as the current conflict allows, Russia's state news agency Tass reported.
Alexey Likhachev said Rosatom has begun returning specialists to the Bushehr construction site, with the first five engineering and technical workers already arriving and starting work.
"That brings the total number of Russian specialists to 25," he said.
Likhachev said Rosatom plans to return all specialists previously evacuated from Iran "as soon as possible," but said a return to prewar staffing levels would depend on final agreements between the United States and Iran on ending hostilities.
"We plan to send the next group, several dozen employees, in the next two weeks," he said.
"This is, of course, assuming there is no further escalation of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. If all goes well, we will increase our project staff to 100 by the fall," he added.
Construction of the main and auxiliary buildings for power units No. 2 and No. 3 is continuing at the site, while preparatory work has begun on hydraulic structures, Likhachev said.
Russia and Iran signed a contract in 1995 for the construction of the first power unit of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.
The plant began operating in 2011.
In 2014, Russia and Iran signed a contract for the construction of two new reactors at Bushehr.
Russia began evacuating personnel from the plant in March because of the conflict, which began on Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel launched a joint offensive against Iran.
Tehran and Washington agreed to a cease-fire in April and later signed a framework deal in June aimed at ending the conflict and reaching a lasting peace agreement.
The deal, however, collapsed last month, with the two sides exchanging attacks for nearly two weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly halted the bombardment amid reports of talks to resolve the conflict.
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