Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, its atomic energy chief said, the last major step toward realizing its stated goal of becoming a peaceful user of nuclear energy.
Officials said the fueling at the Bushehr plant showed Iran’s nuclear plans were on track despite sanctions aimed at forcing it to curb uranium enrichment that many countries fear is aimed at developing atomic bombs.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog called on Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, to address concerns about its true intentions. Several European energy companies said they were reducing their dealings with Iran due to sanctions.
PHOTO: AFP
“This day will be remembered ... because it was the day when fuel was lowered into the core of the reactor,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington has no problem with the Russian-built Bushehr plant, but does with other sites where weapons work may be going on.
“Our problem is with their facilities at places like Natanz and their secret facility at Qom and other places where we believe they are conducting their weapons program,” Clinton told reporters at a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger. “They are entitled to peaceful civilian nuclear power. They are not entitled to nuclear weapons.”
Amid great media fanfare, fuel rods were transported into the reactor building in August, but they were not inserted into its core and the plant’s start-up was delayed due to what were described as minor technical problems.
At a much lower-key news conference, broadcast live from the plant on Iran’s coast, Salehi said it would take another two months to complete the process of lowering 163 fuel assemblies into the core of the reactor and running tests. He said three fuel assemblies had been inserted so far.
The 1,000-megawatt plant will feed Iran’s first nuclear-generated power into the national grid early next year, he said.
“If it were in Europe it would supply electricity to about 800,000 or 900,000 people,” Ian Hore-Lacy of the World Nuclear Association industry body said.
Iran has denied the “Stuxnet” computer virus delayed the start-up, although it did infect some computers at Bushehr.
Some analysts speculated the worm was designed by Iran’s enemies to sabotage the nuclear program.
“Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities are going on as scheduled,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Iran’s parliamentary committee on foreign policy and national security, called the fueling of Bushehr a victory against sanctions.
“What counts a lot in this process is that America mobilized all its resources across the world to ratchet up the pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran and they believe that imposing sanctions on us will deter us from making progress,” he said.
A UN Security Council resolution passed in June, imposing a fourth round of sanctions, renewed a call on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, something Tehran has explicitly refused to do, saying such activity is its right under international law.
Speaking in Moscow, the chief of the UN nuclear agency urged Iran to allay concerns about its nuclear aims.
“I am requesting Iran take concrete steps, concrete measures toward the full implementation of their obligations,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano said.
Experts say firing up the US$1 billion Bushehr plant will not take Iran any closer to building a nuclear bomb, since Russia will supply the enriched uranium for the reactor and take away spent fuel that could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.
Fueling Bushehr “should not be interpreted as some kind of act of defiance,” Mark Fitzpatrick at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London said.
“Nobody has asked them to stop on Bushehr. I think it is a big mistake to equate these two issues,” Fitzpatrick said.
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