Russia has announced it will load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant from next Saturday. The move comes despite US concerns that Iran could use the fuel to make nuclear weapons.

Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on August 21st. Iran says the reactor will then generate electricity to various cities nationwide. Russian officials say that UN sanctions against Iran don't directly prevent Moscow from proceeding with the Bushehr project.

They also note Iran has signed a pledge to ship all the spent uranium fuel from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, on condition none is used to make nuclear weapons.

Sergei Novikov, Spokesman of Russian Atomic Agency, Rosatom, said, "We will begin delivering nuclear fuel to Iran's nuclear power station on August 21st. From that day, the power plant will officially be considered a nuclear energy plant. This will mark the end of the test stage and the beginning of the activity stage."