By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia has begun supplying nuclear fuel to Iran with the first consignment being delivered to the latter’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, Russia’s state nuclear agency said Monday.
“Containers with fuel sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have been delivered to the site and placed in a special storage facility subject to international safety monitoring,” Rosatom said.
The delivery to the $1 billion nuclear power plant being built by Russia in southern Iran came after months of delays, attributed by Moscow to payment irregularities, but blamed by Iran on Western pressure.
Russia’s foreign ministry said Monday the start of nuclear fuel supplies to Iran means the country has laid the foundations to restore trust in its nuclear programme.
“We believe that entirely new conditions have been created, allowing Iran to take steps to restore trust in the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said Iran had provided additional written guarantees that the fuel would be used solely for power generation.
“This includes the suspension of uranium enrichment activities, as Iran will not need its own enrichment facility in the mid-term,” the foreign ministry said.
Russian nuclear officials earlier said fuel for Bushehr would not exceed the uranium enrichment level achieved by the Iranians. The IAEA said Iran has enriched uranium to a level of 3.7 percent of U-235, insufficient for producing nuclear weapons, which would require a level of around 90 percent.
Under a Russian-Iranian agreement on Bushehr, nuclear fuel deliveries to the plant start about 6 months ahead of its commissioning. The ministry said supplies would continue into February 2008.
The spent fuel is to be re-exported to Russia for reprocessing and storage, according to the agreement. In Iran, the nuclear fuel will be under UN control, the ministry said.
The Islamic country has been suspected of seeking to build nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. The US and its allies have pushed for measures to force Tehran to halt uranium enrichment, which is used in both electricity generation and weapons production. Iran insists it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.