Posted on 10/10/2004 8:29:10 PM PDT by whershey
Iran and Russia announced on Sunday that the two countries are about to finalize their delayed protocol on returning spent nuclear fuel to Russia, preparing to the launch of a Russian-built nuclear power plant in southern Iran in 2006.
To give everyone a little background on this project, the plant that is the Bushehr plant located in southern Iran. Bushehr consists of a complex of light water reactors and are not a direct threat to the world due to being strictly an energy producing facility.
The danger is that although Iran is signing a deal to send the spent nuclear fuel back to Russia, that deal is only good as long as Russia is supplying the rods. Iran is working on the ability to produce their own nuclear fuel. Once they are able to so there will be no way to monitor what happens to the spent fuel other then IAEA inspections and we know how effective those are. Iran could use that spent fuel to produce plutonium and eventually a nuclear weapon.
Why is Russia willing to do this? I'd guess the 800 million dollars Iran is paying them to build the plant and however much money they may get for taking back and storing the spent fuel.
This quote gives a clear indication of Russia's attitude towards Iran's nuclear goals:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that his country strongly rejects referring Iran to the UN Security Council for its nuclear activities, saying that such a move could be "counter-productive"."To start thinking of any scenario which is not constructive to our point of view is premature and could be counter-productive," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi.
...
Russia has reiterated more than once that it will continue its nuclear cooperation with Iran as long as the nation complies with the IAEA.
I really don't think we can count on Russia as an ally in the war on terrorism. As bad as the Beslan attack was it seems that money is still more important to Russia then lives.
WOW. Russia you still don't get it do you? Tsk Tsk selling off your countrymen's safety to Iran. Yeah, and I bet Iran doesn't launder any money or weapons to the Chechens...That country is so screwed up.
Russia MUST BE DESPERATE FOR MONEY....Putin is setting up a very bad situation. Is Putin on the take from the U.N. too??
A potentially very dangerous and ugly situation...
"Putin is setting up a very bad situation. Is Putin on the take from the U.N. too??"
I can't believe that!!! I refuse to believe that!!! I'm sorry, I just refuse to believe that!!! (BTW that was sarcasm)
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