Posted on 06/24/2002 1:24:01 AM PDT by David Hunter
Russia has failed to secure guarantees from Iran that Tehran will return spent nuclear fuel which could be converted into weapons-grade plutonium, despite repeated assertions to the contrary from Moscow.
Internal Russian government documents obtained by the Guardian show that no agreement has been reached on the sensitive issue of how to handle the used nuclear fuel from a power station being built by Russia in Iran, which is due to come into operation in a couple of years.
Russia's nuclear cooperation and military deals with Iran have become a major bone of contention with the US since September 11. The Russian construction of the 1,000-megawatt reactor at Bushehr, 500 miles south of Tehran, is at the centre of this tension.
Russia's ministry of atomic energy, which will earn $800m (£570m) from the contracts, says the risk of nuclear arms proliferation is non-existent and has stated repeatedly that the spent fuel is to be repatriated to Russia for storage or reprocessing. But a paper in the confidential documents, written for the Kremlin by the atomic energy ministry, contradicts that assurance.
The paper states: "The question of managing the spent nuclear fuel is absent in the agreement between the governments of Russia and Iran on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Iranian territory.
"Negotiations are taking place on the return of the spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation."
In an interview with Russian television earlier this month, Alexander Rumyantsev, Russia's atomic energy minister, said: "We have agreed with Iran that the used fuel will be returned to Russia.
"This is fulfilment by Russia of our obligations on the non-proliferation of weapons-grade fissile materials."
He made a similar declaration last November.
The lack of an agreement suggests Iran is playing for time and may want to retain the spent fuel which, when reprocessed, yields weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
"Iran would be in possession of weapons-usable material, plutonium," said Tobias Muenchmeyer, a nuclear expert for Greenpeace in Berlin. "For a country like Iran, it would not be difficult to reprocess the spent fuel and isolate the plutonium. It would be a matter of weeks, not months."
The disclosures will increase broad unease about Russia's determination to push ahead with the lucrative contracts for the Bushehr power plant and reinforce US criticism of the project.
Despite the recent warming in relations between the White House and the Kremlin, Russia's nuclear assistance to Iran - a country on the US list of "rogue states" - is one of the biggest irritants in the Russian-American relationship.
In February President Vladimir Putin ordered the atomic energy ministry to provide an "analysis" of Russia's plans to import nuclear waste, a project critics contend will turn Russia into the world's nuclear dump.
The Russian parliament passed three bills last year on the importation of nuclear waste and the analysis was required by the Kremlin for Mr Putin to give the final go-ahead, probably within months.
Mr Rumyantsev has acknowledged the dangers of the spent fuel remaining in Iranian hands. At a dinner in Washington last month he conceded that it was a "very sensitive issue", saying: "It is true that a nuclear power plant can become a source of proliferation once it has accumulated a certain amount of spent nuclear fuel."
The documents recognise that the Iranian connection could scupper Mr Rumyantsev's plans to make Russia the world's leading importer of nuclear waste, a scheme that could, his ministry claimed to widespread derision, earn Russia $20bn over 10 years.
The US controls the world market in spent nuclear fuel, commanding a veto over what happens to between 80% and 90% of the highly radioactive waste.
For the Russian import scheme to work, America's blessing is required.
Russia needs a political agreement with the US for the nuclear imports plan to be feasible, the documents state.
"For a long time now the US has been making the issue of such an agreement conditional on Russia refusing nuclear cooperation with Iran," they add.
In an interview with Russian television earlier this month, Alexander Rumyantsev, Russia's atomic energy minister, said: "We have agreed with Iran that the used fuel will be returned to Russia.
Will the Russians manage to deceive the USA and continue helping the Iranian nuclear program?
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