 |
"The
first batch of fuel for the Bushehr nuclear plant, produced by Russia, is
ready and packed and Russia is trying to make the necessary preparations
for its shipment" |
US Ignored, Bushehr forward
Russian
Atomic Energy Minister, Alexander Rumyantsev, accompanied by a delegation of
20 experts arrived in
Iran on
22 December 2002 for a four-day visit. During his stay, Rumyantsev met with
First Vice President, Mohammad-Reza Aref, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy
Organization, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, and Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi,
and visited the Bushehr nuclear power plant, now under construction with
Russian assistance.
The Bushehr project – worth $800 million –
has soured US - Russian relations as
Russia has ignored repeated US calls for the abandonment of the
project. The
US claims the project advances
Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, but
Russia maintains that it serves civilian purposes and will remain
under international control. Furthermore,
Tehran and
Moscow have agreed to return the spent fuel, which can be used in
nuclear weapons production, to
Russia for reprocessing. The agreement provides a firm guarantee
against nuclear proliferation.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, in a
news conference in
Pakistan said: “Iran is happy to send any spent fuel rods – a potential source of
fissionable material – abroad for reprocessing and has no insistence on
keeping them as it may pose an environmental problem”. He further clarified
that: “Iran is developing this power plant for energy and peaceful
purposes, I repeat, peaceful purposes”.
With both
Iran and
Russia determined to go ahead with the Bushehr project, Rumyantsev
said: “the first batch of fuel for the Bushehr nuclear plant, produced by
Russia, is ready and packed and
Russia is trying to make the necessary preparations for its
shipment”. However, its supply was contingent on
Iran’s signing of an agreement on delivery and the return of
spent fuel, which it has consented to. The plant’s first reactor is set to be
loaded by the end of 2003 and be operational by mid-2004.
Iran and
Russia have considered plans for further cooperation in building
new reactors, but no specific agreements have yet been reached. |
