Despite official Russian statements, officials have not reached an agreement with Iran to guarantee that spent fuel from the Bushehr nuclear power plant would be returned to Russia for reprocessing, the London Guardian reported today (see GSN, March 29).

“The question of managing the spent nuclear fuel is absent in the agreement between the governments of Russia and Iran on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Iranian territory.  Negotiations are taking place on the return of the spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation,” a confidential paper from the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry to the Kremlin said, according to the Guardian.

The ministry has claimed repeatedly that Iran would send the spent fuel back to Russia to reduce any risk of nuclear proliferation, the Guardian reported.

“We have agreed with Iran that the used fuel will be returned to Russia,” Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said earlier this month.

The internal Russian government documents, however, contradict the public statements, according to the Guardian, which did not report when the documents were written.

The United States has expressed concern that the nuclear power plant Russia is building in Iran would pose a proliferation risk (see GSN, June 7).

“It is true that a nuclear power plant can become a source of proliferation once it has accumulated a certain amount of spent nuclear fuel,” Rumyantsev said last month.

“Iran would be in possession of weapons-usable material, plutonium,” said Tobias Muenchmeyer, a nuclear expert for Greenpeace (see GSN, May 21).  “For a country like Iran, it would not be difficult to reprocess the spent fuel and isolate the plutonium.  It would be a matter of weeks, not months” (Ian Traynor, London Guardian, June 24).

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  GET INVOLVED  |  SITE MAP

Back to top