ianstone
08-21-2010, 07:47 PM
Iran goes nuclear: Fears that regime plans to get bomb gather pace as Russian atomic reactor is started
By Jason Lewis (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Jason+Lewis)
Last updated at 9:29 PM on 21st August 2010
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Iran began loading fuel into its first nuclear power plant yesterday, amid continuing fears that the regime plans to build atomic weapons.
The Bushehr plant, which was created with Russian help, is expected to begin producing electricity within the next few weeks.
Moscow officials, who attended yesterday's opening ceremony in southern Iran, have promised safeguards to prevent any nuclear material from the site being used in weapons production.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE13C4000005DC-105_468x309.jpg Start up: Female security guards outside Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant
Russia will both supply Bushehr with fuel and take back any waste which could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.
Yesterday, Iran's nuclear chief claimed the plant was a defiant 'symbol of Iranian resistance and patience' in the face of Western pressure.
Ali Akbar Salehi, of the Atomic Energy Organisation, said: 'Despite all the pressure, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we're now witnessing the start-up of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities.'
Despite his insistence that the country only wants a reliable energy source, the West fears Tehran is looking to build a nuclear weapon under the cover of a 'peaceful' energy programme.
Iran has been subject to four rounds of UN sanctions because of its separate uranium enrichment programme, a process which produces fuel but can also be used to make weapons.
Experts say that as long as the plant, which has taken more than 35 years to build, is Russian-operated and controlled, there is little immediate threat of its fuel being diverted to make bombs.
However, there are fears the plant could be attacked by Israel, which has expressed concern about what Iran will do if allowed to become a nuclear power. Israel attacked Iraq's Osirak reactor during a secret air force bombing mission in 1981, and is also believed to have con-ducted a similar strike on an alleged Syrian nuclear site in 2007.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE6523000005DC-112_468x558.jpg Iranian atomic chief Ali-Akbar Salehi speaks during a press conference
Although Iranian officials were last night promoting the plant's opening as a victory against the West, Professor Ali Ansari, of St Andrews University, said Tehran was likely to exaggerate the importance of the start-up.
'It will obviously have a very theatrical opening but the delays have meant the power plant is a very old model and the contribution to the national grid is very small,' he said.
He claimed the plant is not seen as being a significant proliferation risk because the uranium fuel it will use is well below the enrichment level needed for a nuclear weapon.
Weapons-grade uranium must be enriched by more than 90 per cent, compared to Bushehr's 3.5 per cent.
However, Iran has also revealed intentions to begin a pilot programme to enrich uranium to 20 per cent, which it says is needed for a medical research reactor.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE16C8000005DC-760_468x302.jpg The Bushehr plant, which was created with Russian help, is expected to begin producing electricity within the next few weeks
The programme has alarmed the West and Israel. Reports in Washington suggested the US lifted its objections to Bushehr as the price for Russia's vote in the latest round of sanctions against Iran.
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: 'The loading of Russian fuel into the Bushehr nuclear power reactor demonstrates Iran can have the benefits of nuclear power. 'The problem is Iran's continued refusal to satisfy the international community that its work on uranium enrichment and heavy water projects are exclusively peaceful.
'We continue to urge Iran to take advantage of the open door to hold talks on all aspects of its nuclear programme.
'International anxiety about Iran's proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities can only be ended by Iran complying with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and satisfying the international community these activities are peaceful.'
Moscow’s double-game could lead to peace ... or bring Armageddon closer
ANALYSIS By MARK ALMOND
While technicians yesterday began loading nuclear fuel at Iran’s Bushehr atomic energy plant, influential voices in America and Israel called for air strikes to stop the start-up.
Yet an eleventh-hour air strike is out of the question.
The reason another war to stop the spread of WMDs in the Middle East has been avoided? One word: Russia.
Russia’s role is central. The West needs Russia’s support on the UN Security Council for any action against Iran, and Obama has no appetite for Bush’s lone-ranger role.
But Russia is also providing the Bushehr reactor. Is Russia playing a double-game?
Yes, but not necessarily against the US. Bushehr is Russian-designed and Russian-fuelled.
Under a bilateral agreement spent fuel rods return to Russia so any plutonium should stay in Russian hands. That way Iran cannot make a bomb with it.
It should be problem solved, but it isn’t. There is deep distrust of Iran in the West. America and Israel believe Iran is set on making atomic weapons.
Cameron’s slip last month saying Iran already has the bomb revealed Whitehall’s suspicions of the ayatollahs.
The cause is the regime’s twin-track approach. Despite Bushehr, Iran is still making nuclear fuel from scratch in a costly parallel programme.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE179D000005DC-527_468x490.jpg Ali Akbar Salehi, right, shakes hands with chief of the Russian atomic agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko
The Iranians say Russia dilly-dallied on Bushehr under US pressure. It has taken 15 years to get this far.
Tehran claims without its own project Russia would have had no incentive to finish Bushehr against Washington’s wishes.
Iran has built thousands of cyclotrons to enrich uranium for low-grade fuel, placing them underground to protect them against US or Israeli bombing.
This may just be safeguarding a civilian nuclear programme but, as it is protected against attack, Tehran could switch it to bomb-making if it wished.
That is the problem. Iran does not trust the West, and the West disbelieves Iran’s assurances about their plans.
The Kremlin has tried to calm US fears by backing UN sanctions against Iran’s own atomic activities after the regime refused to co-operate with international inspections.
Russia also says it will keep plutonium produced in Bushehr out of Iranian hands. But America and Israel don’t trust Iran not to seize it when enough is ready for a bomb.
Fears of nuclear war in the Middle East are probably exaggerated. Iran is unlikely to want to commit suicide by provoking it. But, as North Korea’s regime has shown, having the bomb gives a rogue state much more leeway.
Witness the lack of action against Pyonyang, despite the US and South Korea believing North Korea committed an act of war sinking a South Korean warship in
March, killing 46 sailors. The US and its allies fear Tehran too could act with impunity if it gets the bomb.
Right now the US and Israel are the only nuclear-armed states with forces in the Middle East. A nuclear Iran would dramatically alter the balance of power.
Its allies Hezbollah and Hamas would be bolder in defying or provoking Israel.
It is not by chance Hillary Clinton chose this weekend to re-start talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
From Israel to Afghanistan, the geopolitics of the region is on a knife-edge, but not everything has to be gloom. Despite antagonism between the Kremlin and the West, the Cold War did not go nuclear.
Maybe Russia’s start-up of the Bushehr reactor will help Iran reset its relations with the West. If Iran wants peaceful nuclear energy, it has it. The ball is in Tehran’s court.
Mark Almond is Visiting Professor in International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1305076/Iran-goes-nuclear-Fears-regime-plans-bomb-gather-pace-Russian-atomic-reactor-started.html#ixzz0xHs3npoO
By Jason Lewis (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Jason+Lewis)
Last updated at 9:29 PM on 21st August 2010
Comments (0) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1305076/Iran-goes-nuclear-Fears-regime-plans-bomb-gather-pace-Russian-atomic-reactor-started.html#comments)
Add to My Stories (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1305076/Iran-goes-nuclear-Fears-regime-plans-bomb-gather-pace-Russian-atomic-reactor-started.html)
Iran began loading fuel into its first nuclear power plant yesterday, amid continuing fears that the regime plans to build atomic weapons.
The Bushehr plant, which was created with Russian help, is expected to begin producing electricity within the next few weeks.
Moscow officials, who attended yesterday's opening ceremony in southern Iran, have promised safeguards to prevent any nuclear material from the site being used in weapons production.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE13C4000005DC-105_468x309.jpg Start up: Female security guards outside Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant
Russia will both supply Bushehr with fuel and take back any waste which could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.
Yesterday, Iran's nuclear chief claimed the plant was a defiant 'symbol of Iranian resistance and patience' in the face of Western pressure.
Ali Akbar Salehi, of the Atomic Energy Organisation, said: 'Despite all the pressure, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we're now witnessing the start-up of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities.'
Despite his insistence that the country only wants a reliable energy source, the West fears Tehran is looking to build a nuclear weapon under the cover of a 'peaceful' energy programme.
Iran has been subject to four rounds of UN sanctions because of its separate uranium enrichment programme, a process which produces fuel but can also be used to make weapons.
Experts say that as long as the plant, which has taken more than 35 years to build, is Russian-operated and controlled, there is little immediate threat of its fuel being diverted to make bombs.
However, there are fears the plant could be attacked by Israel, which has expressed concern about what Iran will do if allowed to become a nuclear power. Israel attacked Iraq's Osirak reactor during a secret air force bombing mission in 1981, and is also believed to have con-ducted a similar strike on an alleged Syrian nuclear site in 2007.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE6523000005DC-112_468x558.jpg Iranian atomic chief Ali-Akbar Salehi speaks during a press conference
Although Iranian officials were last night promoting the plant's opening as a victory against the West, Professor Ali Ansari, of St Andrews University, said Tehran was likely to exaggerate the importance of the start-up.
'It will obviously have a very theatrical opening but the delays have meant the power plant is a very old model and the contribution to the national grid is very small,' he said.
He claimed the plant is not seen as being a significant proliferation risk because the uranium fuel it will use is well below the enrichment level needed for a nuclear weapon.
Weapons-grade uranium must be enriched by more than 90 per cent, compared to Bushehr's 3.5 per cent.
However, Iran has also revealed intentions to begin a pilot programme to enrich uranium to 20 per cent, which it says is needed for a medical research reactor.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE16C8000005DC-760_468x302.jpg The Bushehr plant, which was created with Russian help, is expected to begin producing electricity within the next few weeks
The programme has alarmed the West and Israel. Reports in Washington suggested the US lifted its objections to Bushehr as the price for Russia's vote in the latest round of sanctions against Iran.
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: 'The loading of Russian fuel into the Bushehr nuclear power reactor demonstrates Iran can have the benefits of nuclear power. 'The problem is Iran's continued refusal to satisfy the international community that its work on uranium enrichment and heavy water projects are exclusively peaceful.
'We continue to urge Iran to take advantage of the open door to hold talks on all aspects of its nuclear programme.
'International anxiety about Iran's proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities can only be ended by Iran complying with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and satisfying the international community these activities are peaceful.'
Moscow’s double-game could lead to peace ... or bring Armageddon closer
ANALYSIS By MARK ALMOND
While technicians yesterday began loading nuclear fuel at Iran’s Bushehr atomic energy plant, influential voices in America and Israel called for air strikes to stop the start-up.
Yet an eleventh-hour air strike is out of the question.
The reason another war to stop the spread of WMDs in the Middle East has been avoided? One word: Russia.
Russia’s role is central. The West needs Russia’s support on the UN Security Council for any action against Iran, and Obama has no appetite for Bush’s lone-ranger role.
But Russia is also providing the Bushehr reactor. Is Russia playing a double-game?
Yes, but not necessarily against the US. Bushehr is Russian-designed and Russian-fuelled.
Under a bilateral agreement spent fuel rods return to Russia so any plutonium should stay in Russian hands. That way Iran cannot make a bomb with it.
It should be problem solved, but it isn’t. There is deep distrust of Iran in the West. America and Israel believe Iran is set on making atomic weapons.
Cameron’s slip last month saying Iran already has the bomb revealed Whitehall’s suspicions of the ayatollahs.
The cause is the regime’s twin-track approach. Despite Bushehr, Iran is still making nuclear fuel from scratch in a costly parallel programme.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/21/article-1305076-0ADE179D000005DC-527_468x490.jpg Ali Akbar Salehi, right, shakes hands with chief of the Russian atomic agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko
The Iranians say Russia dilly-dallied on Bushehr under US pressure. It has taken 15 years to get this far.
Tehran claims without its own project Russia would have had no incentive to finish Bushehr against Washington’s wishes.
Iran has built thousands of cyclotrons to enrich uranium for low-grade fuel, placing them underground to protect them against US or Israeli bombing.
This may just be safeguarding a civilian nuclear programme but, as it is protected against attack, Tehran could switch it to bomb-making if it wished.
That is the problem. Iran does not trust the West, and the West disbelieves Iran’s assurances about their plans.
The Kremlin has tried to calm US fears by backing UN sanctions against Iran’s own atomic activities after the regime refused to co-operate with international inspections.
Russia also says it will keep plutonium produced in Bushehr out of Iranian hands. But America and Israel don’t trust Iran not to seize it when enough is ready for a bomb.
Fears of nuclear war in the Middle East are probably exaggerated. Iran is unlikely to want to commit suicide by provoking it. But, as North Korea’s regime has shown, having the bomb gives a rogue state much more leeway.
Witness the lack of action against Pyonyang, despite the US and South Korea believing North Korea committed an act of war sinking a South Korean warship in
March, killing 46 sailors. The US and its allies fear Tehran too could act with impunity if it gets the bomb.
Right now the US and Israel are the only nuclear-armed states with forces in the Middle East. A nuclear Iran would dramatically alter the balance of power.
Its allies Hezbollah and Hamas would be bolder in defying or provoking Israel.
It is not by chance Hillary Clinton chose this weekend to re-start talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
From Israel to Afghanistan, the geopolitics of the region is on a knife-edge, but not everything has to be gloom. Despite antagonism between the Kremlin and the West, the Cold War did not go nuclear.
Maybe Russia’s start-up of the Bushehr reactor will help Iran reset its relations with the West. If Iran wants peaceful nuclear energy, it has it. The ball is in Tehran’s court.
Mark Almond is Visiting Professor in International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1305076/Iran-goes-nuclear-Fears-regime-plans-bomb-gather-pace-Russian-atomic-reactor-started.html#ixzz0xHs3npoO