Russia Eases Away from Plan to Build Nuclear Plants in Iran

Paraphrased by Steve Waldrop
August 7, 2002

After intense talks with top U.S. envoys, Russian officials appeared to backing down from plans to expand their nuclear cooperation with Iran.

The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry issued a statement saying that a program announced last week to expand the number of nuclear reactors it plans to build in Iran is only a list of "existing technical possibilities."

U.S. officials familiar with the talks described the new Russian statement as "big progress."

Russia has been working to complete construction on a nuclear reactor since 1995, in the Iranian town of Bushehr, a project begun by Siemens a German firm, and abandoned after the Iranian revolution in 1979.

The plans released last week described a much larger program of nuclear cooperation-- three more reactors at Bushehr, and two at a new site, Ahvaz, bringing the total to six reactors over the next 10 years.

The draft expansion program was announced just days before the previously scheduled arrival of two U.S. officials-- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Undersecretary of State John Bolton.

Moscow has agreed to supply Iran with the fissile fuel for the plants and to ship spent nuclear material back to Russia for storage. For its part, Iran has signed a treaty that requires its nuclear plants to be regularly visited by U.N. inspectors to see that all the nuclear fuel is accounted for.

These safeguards would not prevent Iran from diverting the nuclear fuel for military purposes, but they probably would ensure that such diversions were promptly detected. The Russians, argue that the power stations they intend to build in Iran are essentially the same kind that the United States, in 1994 agreed to help build in North Korea as part of a deal under which North Korea abandoned its nuclear weapons program.

But the United States believes that Iran's purpose in acquiring the reactors isn't energy but the expertise and equipment they would gain along the way.

"We have long been concerned that Iran's only interest in nuclear civil power, given its vast domestic energy resources, is to support its nuclear weapons program," Abraham told a news conference Thursday. "For that reason, we have insistently urged Russia to cease all nuclear cooperation with Iran, including its assistance to the reactor in Bushehr."

Russian nuclear experts suggested that the release of the new plan last week was a negotiating tactic on the Russian side.

"There is a strong impression that is shared by many Russian experts that the United States and Russia have already reached a mutually acceptable agreement on Iran. Everything is in the bag already," said Anton Khlopkov, a nuclear expert with the PIR Center, A Moscow think tank.

U.S. complaints about Russian-Iranian cooperation date back more than 20 years, to 1979. Building the six nuclear plants in Iran would generate nearly $5 billion for the cash-strapped Russian economy, and the work would provide jobs for thousands of Russians for more than 10 years.