Russia: Iran's nuclear plant to get fuel next week
Jason P
Posts: 19,158
I think the doomsday clock just inched forward.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iran_nuclear
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 16 mins ago
MOSCOW – Russia will load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant next week despite U.S. demands to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear energy until the country proves that it's not pursuing a weapons capacity, officials said Friday.
Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 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.
"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency, told The Associated Press.
Russia signed a $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, but analysts say Moscow has used the project to press Iran to ease its defiance over its nuclear program.
Russian officials say, however, that U.N. sanctions against Iran, including a new, more stringent set approved in June, don't directly prevent Moscow from going ahead with the Bushehr project. It has argued that the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and fulfill its obligations under international nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
Russian officials did not say why they had decided to move ahead with loading fuel into the Bushehr plant now.
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. Iran claims it needs the 20 percent enriched uranium to produce fuel for a medical research reactor, but the move has further heightened international concerns about its nuclear program.
Uranium must be enriched to over 90 percent to be used in a nuclear warhead.
Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, 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.
"Fuel complexes are sealed (and being monitored by IAEA). Naturally, IAEA inspectors will be there to watch the unsealing," ISNA quoted Salehi as saying.
Russia has said that the Bushehr project has been closely supervised by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which declined comment Friday. It also says Iran has signed a pledge to ship all the spent uranium fuel from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, excluding a possibility that any of it could used to make nuclear weapons.
Russia has walked a fine line on Iran for years. It is one of the six powers leading international efforts to ensure Iran does not develop an atomic bomb. It has backed U.N. sanctions, but strongly criticized the U.S. and the European Union for following up with separate, even stronger sanctions.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iran_nuclear
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 16 mins ago
MOSCOW – Russia will load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant next week despite U.S. demands to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear energy until the country proves that it's not pursuing a weapons capacity, officials said Friday.
Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 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.
"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency, told The Associated Press.
Russia signed a $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, but analysts say Moscow has used the project to press Iran to ease its defiance over its nuclear program.
Russian officials say, however, that U.N. sanctions against Iran, including a new, more stringent set approved in June, don't directly prevent Moscow from going ahead with the Bushehr project. It has argued that the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and fulfill its obligations under international nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
Russian officials did not say why they had decided to move ahead with loading fuel into the Bushehr plant now.
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. Iran claims it needs the 20 percent enriched uranium to produce fuel for a medical research reactor, but the move has further heightened international concerns about its nuclear program.
Uranium must be enriched to over 90 percent to be used in a nuclear warhead.
Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, 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.
"Fuel complexes are sealed (and being monitored by IAEA). Naturally, IAEA inspectors will be there to watch the unsealing," ISNA quoted Salehi as saying.
Russia has said that the Bushehr project has been closely supervised by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which declined comment Friday. It also says Iran has signed a pledge to ship all the spent uranium fuel from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, excluding a possibility that any of it could used to make nuclear weapons.
Russia has walked a fine line on Iran for years. It is one of the six powers leading international efforts to ensure Iran does not develop an atomic bomb. It has backed U.N. sanctions, but strongly criticized the U.S. and the European Union for following up with separate, even stronger sanctions.
Be Excellent To Each Other
Party On, Dudes!
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
i suggest you take a look at who the largest exporter of arms is ...
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
For me it is like the right to bear arms, every country, even the ones you disagree with have the right to defend themselves from perceived threats, whether those threats are real or not does not really matter to me. If a terrorist wants a nuclear bomb, they will get one, stopping a country from having more energy is not our business.
Anyways, if we had just been supportive of iran doing this in the first place things may be different right now in regards to our relationship, and they may have been more likely to accept outside oversight.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
there will never be an even exchange, perpetual war for perpetual peace can never happen. in 2 months we will have been at war in afghanistan for 9 years and there is no end in sight... that is about as perpetual as it gets...then will there be peace after that? i doubt it because all of those thousands of iraqis and afghans that have lost family members as a result of our actions will continue to have us as their mortal enemy.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
naw ... you sell them to african dictators who use the weapons to brutalize women and children ...
who sells the most arms is related to your original post which claimed russia was only in it for the buck ... just trying to point out that the US is all about the mighty dollar ...
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
And it's not using the nukes as defense that concerns me. All it takes is for a single person under a false ideology to supply a small group with a mobile bomb that can be used without consequence to the nation that developed it.
More importantly though, I just don't think Iran is interested in starting a nuclear war, or being a party to anyone detonating a nuclear bomb. If they were interested in a bomb they would have one by now.
If if the last part is true, then no nation anywhere should be allowed by anyone in the international community to posess a nuclear bomb.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
Iran has the 3rd largest oil reserve and the 2nd largest natural gas reserve in the world. Neither is sustainable but advances in solar technology should be advancing over the next decade.
What?
Are you insane?
It's these neurotic ideas that have everyone out against each other in the first place.
Everyone just needs to calm the fuck down and eat some fruit.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
maybe that 1 clause when you build a nuke that states..."can prevent US ground invasions".
its defense. yeah. Aggressive US foreign policy is encouraging states like Iran to pursue nuclear arms. want to see less nukes in th4e world? don't be spo fucking agressive throughout much of it.