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Iran asks Russia to 'reboot' Bushehr nuclear project, Rosatom CEO says

Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said Iran has requested Russia to 'reboot' the Bushehr nuclear power plant project, adding that circumstances do not permit immediate work but the signal offers cautious optimism. He also said Rosatom is closely monitoring US-Iranian negotiations, noting that only Russia has positive experience removing enriched uranium from Iran.

By Tertius News AI Desk 1 distinct · 1 masthead · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Apr 9–18, 2026 Published Aug 13

Lead

Iran has asked Russia to "reboot" the Bushehr nuclear power plant project as soon as possible, according to the CEO of the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev. Speaking to Russia's Vesti program, Likhachev said the head of Iran's atomic industry, also a vice president of the country, contacted him with a request to begin work on the project.

"This project remains ours," Likhachev said, as quoted by TASS. "I was contacted by the head of Iran's atomic industry, the vice president of this country with a request to start looking into rebooting the project as soon as possible, to start working on it, and we are ready."

Likhachev acknowledged, however, that immediate work is not yet possible. "Clearly, the circumstances do not permit doing so at this point," he said. "But, in my view, this kind of signal from the Iranian atomic industry gives grounds for some optimism. Cautious optimism, though, taking into account the present-day situation."

Coverage Comparison

Two separate reports from TASS, Russia's state news agency, covered Likhachev's remarks. The first, dated April 9, focused on the Bushehr request. The second, dated April 18, quoted Likhachev on Rosatom's monitoring of US-Iranian negotiations and the role of enriched uranium removal in those talks. Both reports rely on Likhachev's statements and do not include independent verification or additional sourcing.

Key Claims

The key points from Likhachev's statements, as reported by TASS, include:

Iran has requested that Russia "reboot" the Bushehr nuclear power plant project, a project that Likhachev said "remains ours."
Russia is ready to work on the project, but current circumstances do not permit immediate action.
Rosatom is closely following negotiations between US and Iranian representatives, particularly on nuclear issues.
The removal of Iranian enriched uranium is a key and sensitive issue in the negotiations.
Russia has positive experience in this area, having removed enriched uranium from Iran in 2015 at Tehran's request.

How this outlet told it

A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.

TASS — English · 2 articles

Framing: Russia's involvement in US-Iranian nuclear negotiations

as of Apr 18, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

Facts Included:

Rosatom is monitoring US-Iranian negotiations on nuclear issues
Removal of Iranian enriched uranium is a key issue in negotiations
Russia has positive experience interacting with Iran on nuclear issues
Russia removed enriched uranium from Iran in 2015

Read the source article →

as of Apr 9, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

Framing: Iran's request for Russia's involvement in nuclear project — cautiously optimistic

Facts Included:

Iran requested Russia to reboot the Bushehr nuclear power plant project
Russia is ready to work on the project
Current circumstances do not permit immediate work on the project

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimRosatom is monitoring US-Iranian negotiations on nuclear issues. The CEO of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, stated that they are closely following the progress of the negotiation process between US and Iranian representatives.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Apr 18, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC
ClaimRemoval of Iranian enriched uranium is a key issue in negotiations. The removal of Iranian enriched uranium remains a key and sensitive issue during the negotiations between the parties.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Apr 18, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC
ClaimRussia has positive experience interacting with Iran on nuclear issues. In 2015, at Iran’s request, Russia removed enriched uranium from the Islamic Republic.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Apr 18, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC
ClaimIran requested Russia to reboot the Bushehr nuclear power plant project. The Iranian side requested that Russia 'reboot' the project as quickly as possible.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Apr 9, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC
ClaimRussia is ready to work on the Bushehr nuclear power plant project. Rosatom’s CEO, Alexey Likhachev, stated that they are ready to start working on the project.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Apr 9, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC
ClaimCurrent circumstances do not permit immediate work on the Bushehr nuclear power plant project. The circumstances do not permit doing so at this point, but the signal from the Iranian atomic industry gives grounds for some optimism.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via TASS — English as of Apr 9, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

1 distinct · 1 masthead · 2 articles consulted: TASS — English 6 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-13