Iran's nuclear plant to get fuel from Russia
Source: Agencies |
August 14, 2010, Saturday
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RUSSIA will load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant next week despite US demands to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear energy until the country proves that it's not pursuing a weapons capacity.
Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on August 21, beginning a startup process that will last about a month and end with the reactor sending electricity to Iranian cities, Russian and Iranian officials said yesterday.
"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency.
Russia signed a US$1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant in 1995 but it has dragged its feet on completing the project. Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays.
Russian officials say that UN sanctions against Iran don't directly prevent Moscow from going ahead with the Bushehr project.
The uranium fuel used by the Bushehr plant is enriched to a level too low to be used in an nuclear weapon. Iran is already producing uranium enriched to that level -- about 3.5 percent -- and has started a pilot program of enriching uranium to 20 percent. Uranium must be enriched to over 90 percent to be used in a nuclear warhead.
Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi as saying that the country had invited International Atomic Energy Agency experts to watch the transfer of fuel, which was shipped about two years ago, into the Bushehr reactor.
Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on August 21, beginning a startup process that will last about a month and end with the reactor sending electricity to Iranian cities, Russian and Iranian officials said yesterday.
"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency.
Russia signed a US$1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant in 1995 but it has dragged its feet on completing the project. Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays.
Russian officials say that UN sanctions against Iran don't directly prevent Moscow from going ahead with the Bushehr project.
The uranium fuel used by the Bushehr plant is enriched to a level too low to be used in an nuclear weapon. Iran is already producing uranium enriched to that level -- about 3.5 percent -- and has started a pilot program of enriching uranium to 20 percent. Uranium must be enriched to over 90 percent to be used in a nuclear warhead.
Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi as saying that the country had invited International Atomic Energy Agency experts to watch the transfer of fuel, which was shipped about two years ago, into the Bushehr reactor.
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