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Iranian Bushehr Plant Could Soon Get Nuclear Fuel
Russia could send nuclear fuel to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in a matter of months, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, June 22). “The site is 84 percent finished and will be completed towards the end of 2006,” said Assadollah Sabouri, deputy chief of Iran’s atomic energy organization. “The fuel is in Russia and ready to be transported, and it will be delivered soon but the exact date will remain confidential,” he said. “God willing, in a few months.” Sabouri reiterated Tehran’s stance that Bushehr would operate only for peaceful purposes. The United States believes the plant is part of a suspected Iranian nuclear weapons program. “Bushehr is entirely under the supervision of the [International Atomic Energy Agency]. The fuel will be verified before it is sent to Iran and IAEA inspectors will be here to open the seals,” Sabouri said. The United States has been arguing “on a daily basis” that Moscow should halt involvement in Iran’s nuclear program, Russian diplomats said. Russia has required that Iran return spent nuclear fuel, but has otherwise maintained the connection, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 22). Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said today he believes the potential threat posed by Bushehr is being overstated. Russia installed only low-grade nuclear equipment at the facility, which is set to use light-water reactors that are not best for producing plutonium, he told Swedish public radio. “It is possible, but it is very difficult. The way you would usually go is to have a research reactor,” Blix said. While he expressed concern about Iran’s uranium enrichment capability, Blix said it would be years before the country could produce a nuclear weapon (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar, June 23). Iran’s nuclear program was expected to be a major topic of discussion today during a meeting in London of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations, the Associated Press reported (Ed Johnson, Associated Press/ABC News, June 23).
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