Thursday, 17 February 2005TEHRAN - Russia will sign a deal with Iran next week to start nuclear fuel shipments for the Russian-built
reactor there, an Iranian official says.
The United States, which accuses Iran of secretly working to develop nuclear weapons, has long called on Russia to
avoid supplying the Islamic state with nuclear fuel.
"A fuel deal for the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be signed on February 26," Assadollah Sabouri, deputy head of
Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told state television on Thursday.
The comments indicated that the two countries had settled disagreements over the terms of their accord after years
of negotiations.
Oil-rich Iran denies that it is developing nuclear arms and says its programme is solely for generating electricity.
Israel said on Wednesday that Iran was just six months away from having the knowledge to build nuclear weapons.
Sabouri said Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency, would travel to Iran to sign the
deal.
A source at the agency said this month that the first fuel containers would be supplied about two months after the
signing.
The 1,000-megawatt Bushehr reactor, Iran's only nuclear power plant, is due to start up in late 2005 and reach full
capacity in 2006.
Spent fuel will be sent back to Siberian storage units after about a decade of use -- a condition Russia thinks should
allay U.S. concerns that Iran could use the material to make weapons.
The European Union, represented by France, Britain and Germany, has been trying to persuade Iran to scrap
potentially weapons-related activities in return for economic incentives.
|
Thursday, 17 February 2005
Reuters via Swissinfo
|
|
