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Saturday, January 26, 2008
Iran got 7th shipment of Russian fuel for nuclear power plant (3:34 p.m.)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran received the 7th shipment of nuclear
fuel from Russia on Saturday for a power plant being constructed in
the southern port of Bushehr, the official IRNA news agency
reported.
The 11-ton consignment of enriched uranium arrived at the
light-water Bushehr nuclear power plant on Saturday morning, with
the final shipment of the fuel expected at a "determined time,"
the agency reported.
"Of 82 tons of initial fuel needed for the Bushehr nuclear power
plant, 77 tons have been shipped to Iran so far," it added.
Iran received the first shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia on
Dec. 17 after months of dispute between the two countries, allegedly
over delayed construction payments for the reactor.
Iran has said Bushehr, the country's first nuclear reactor, will
begin operating in the summer of 2008, producing half its
1,000-megawatt capacity of electricity.
Tehran heralded the first shipment as a victory, saying it proved
its nuclear program was peaceful and not a cover for weapons
development as claimed by the U.S. and some of its allies.
The U.S. initially opposed Russian participation in building the
Bushehr reactor and supplying it with fuel, but reversed its
position about a year ago to obtain Moscow's support for the first
set of U.N. sanctions against Iran.
Washington was also influenced by Iran's agreement to return
spent nuclear fuel from the reactor to Russia to ensure it doesn't
extract plutonium from it to make atomic bombs.
Russia's decision to ship nuclear fuel to Iran follows a U.S.
intelligence report released last month that concluded Tehran had
stopped its nuclear weapons program in late 2003 and had not resumed
it since. Iran says it never had a weapons program.
It also came after the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran had been truthful about its past
uranium enrichment activities.
The United States and Russia have said the supply of nuclear fuel
means Iran has no need to contiranium because it
needed to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it was
building in the southwestern town of Darkhovin.
Iranian officials have said they plan to generate 20,000
megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two
decades. (AP)
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