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Summary
Russia will begin loading nuclear fuel into the reactor of Iran's first atomic power station on Saturday -- an irreversible step marking the start-up of the Bushehr plant after nearly 40 years of delay. Russian specialists and their Iranian counterparts are to begin loading uranium-packed fuel rods into the reactor on Saturday -- a process that will take 2-3 weeks. Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi are expected to attend the official launching ceremony. Russia agreed in 1995 to build the Bushehr plant on the site of a project started by German company Siemens in the 1970s, but delays have haunted the 1 billion dollar project and diplomats say Moscow has used it as a lever in relation with Tehran. The United States has criticised Moscow for pushing ahead with the Bushehr project at a time when major powers including Russia are pressing Tehran to allay fears that its nuclear energy programme may be geared to develop weapons. But western fears that the Bushehr project could help Iran develop a nuclear weapon were lessened when Moscow reached an agreement with Tehran obliging it to return spent fuel to Russia. Weapons-grade plutonium can be derived from spent fuel rods. The U.S. State Department said it did not regard Bushehr as a proliferation risk, but emphasised that broader concerns remained about the direction of Iran's nuclear programme.
