'' he said . Abbasi said the centrifuges , which are used to enrich uranium , were shown to the deputy of IAEA , Director-General Yukiya Amano , but he did not say when . It was not immediately clear whether an IAEA representative had in fact been to Iran and seen the centrifuges . The new centrifuges will enable Iran to enrich uranium over the current purity level of 5 % , according to experts cited by the news agency . Uranium enriched to between 3 % and 5 % is necessary to make fuel for reactors . Uranium enriched to 93.5 % is considered weapons-grade . The construction of Bushehr -- a civilian , not military , plant -- started in 1975 when Germany signed a contract with Iran . Germany , however , pulled out of the project following the 1979 revolution that created the current Islamic republic . Iran then signed a deal with Russia in 1995 , under which the plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999 , but the project was delayed repeatedly . Bushehr finally opened in August 2010 . The United States and other Western nations have expressed concerns that
Tehran , Iran -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Iran 's Bushehr nuclear power plant is just weeks from operating at full capacity , the country 's top nuclear official said Saturday . Feireidoun Abbasi , the head of Iran 's Atomic Energy Organization , also said Tehran has shown its new Iranian-made centrifuges to a representative of the International Atomic Energy Agency -LRB- IAEA -RRB- . The Bushehr plant , located along the Persian Gulf coast , will reach its full capacity of 1,000 megawatts by February 1 , Abbasi said , according to the country 's official news agency , IRNA . The plant was connected to the country 's electric grid in September with a capacity of 60 megawatts . At 1,000 megawatts , Bushehr will be able to provide 2.5 % of Iran 's current electricity consumption , the IAEA said . Abbasi made the announcement about Bushehr while attending a meeting on Iran 's nuclear achievements held in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas . He told the meeting that Tehran had shown the new generation of its homemade centrifuge machines to the IAEA `` in a bid to demonstrate the ability of Iranian scientists ,