IRI scientists should not be deprived of IAEA safety meetings: envoy

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, March 6, IRNA -- Iranian nuclear scientists should not be deprived of IAEA nuclear safety science and IAEA related meetings under the pretext of political resolutions of UN Security Council, Iran’s Ambassador to UN atomic watchdog Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on Monday.

“Nuclear safety is a technical issue which is contributed directly to the human life internationally; politicizing nuclear safety is not logical,” the official added.

He noted that there should be no limitation on exchange of safety-related nuclear science and equipments as well as emergency programs for nuclear incidents.

“Members of IAEA board of governors expect that IAEA secretary general as well as Japanese nuclear officials transfer their experience of Fukushima nuclear catastrophe to the world in order to prevent the repletion of same incidents,” Soltanieh continued.

He underlined that depriving Iranian nuclear scientists from the IAEA nuclear safety meetings and committees under the pretext of political resolutions is against IAEA letter of constitution and the international concerns in this field.

“Transferring the nuclear safety knowledge and experience to IAEA member-states is the only way which guarantees the safety of nuclear plants around the world,” Iranian envoy to IAEA concluded.

Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power, industry, and military uses.

The nuclear power industry has improved the safety and performance of reactors, and has proposed new safer (but generally untested) reactor designs but there is no guarantee that the reactors will be designed, built and operated correctly. Mistakes do occur and the designers of reactors at Fukushima in Japan did not anticipate that a tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems that were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake. According to UBS AG, the Fukushima I nuclear accidents have cast doubt on whether even an advanced economy like Japan can master nuclear safety. Catastrophic scenarios involving terrorist attacks are also conceivable.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed the West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing those sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.

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