Senior security official arrives in Moscow for nuclear talks
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Moscow, Nov 22, IRNA -- A senior Iranian security official arrived here Monday to discuss Tehran`s nuclear program with Russian officials as well as the two countries` cooperation in this respect. Russian specialists are helping Iran build a nuclear power plant in southern Bushehr to the indignation of the United States, which accuses Tehran of having a covert nuclear weapons program. In Moscow, Hossein Moussavian, foreign policy committee secretary at Iran`s Supreme National Security Council is due to meet Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov and Director of the Department of Disarmament and Export Control at the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry Sergei Kisliak. The two countries` nuclear cooperation, including completion of the Bushehr plant, and the issue of returning spent fuel from Iran are among the topics on the two sides` agenda for discussions. The two countries announced in October that a deal for return of spent fuel from Bushehr plant to Russia was at the final stage. But, the agreement has been delayed repeatedly, turning into a major sticking point, because of what the two countries say are financial details. The deal will pave the way for the inauguration of the first Iranian 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor. In August, Iran said the plant will become operational in October 2006, a year behind schedule. Deputy head of Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization Asadollah Sabouri cited some of the complexities which are dogging the project, including the deal related to the return of spent fuel and its costs. "One subject which has not been concluded yet is related to the deal on the return of spent fuel, which is very complex," he said. "Given that the return and transfer of the spent fuel from the power plant to Russia will be carried out eight or nine years later, it is hard to figure out the transfer costs now," Sabouri added. He said the contract for the return of the spent fuel, however, has been finalized, and differences exist over the costs. According to Sabouri, the two countries have set the deadline for Russia`s delivery of nuclear fuel for the power plant to Iran at the end of 2005. So far, Iran has spent more than one billion dollars on the project and it is projected that a further three to four billion dollars has to be spent on bringing the power plant on stream, Sabouri said. "We will receive all the equipment by the end of this year (in March 2005) and the installation work will be carried out in the second half of this year and next year," Sabouri said. Once operational, the power plant is projected to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity, 6,000 megawatts less than the target which Iran has set to produce by 2021 in nuclear power plants. This will require conclusion of new contracts and Sabouri said technical and economic studies on building a new plant by Russia had been concluded, pending discussions by the two countries` officials in their future agenda. Bushehr has seen its start date pushed back steadily in recent years from an earlier target of 2003. Russian officials had recently said it would start up in 2005. Construction of Bushehr power plant has already cost Iran billions of dollars. The German firm Siemens and its subsidiary Kraftwerke Union (KWU) began work on the plant in 1974, but stopped following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. At that time, Unit-One was 90 percent complete, with 60 percent of the equipment installed, and Unit-Two was 50 percent complete. During the 1980 to 1988 imposed war with Iraq, the Bushehr reactors were repeatedly targeted by Iraq, which bombed the plant at least six times. Starting in the mid-1980s, Iran approached several nuclear suppliers about the possibility of completing the Bushehr-1 reactor. A consortium of West German, Spanish and Argentine companies bid to complete it in the late 1980s, but the deal was never completed owing to US pressure. In a similar deal, Iran signed a protocol in February 1990 with Spanish companies to complete the plant and supply the reactor`s fuel, but they later canceled the deal citing US political pressure. Russia has repeatedly shrugged off US pressures and vowed to continue its cooperation with Iran as long as the country complies with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Moscow also opposes US efforts to report Tehran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. "Iran has shown in a justifiable manner that it must have access, like other countries, to new technologies, including nuclear technology used for peaceful purposes," Igor Ivanov has said. "This is a viable justification and that is why Russia is cooperating with Iran," he has said. 2323/2322/1432
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