Nuclear status

JOHN CHERIAN

The Bushehr atomic plant, built with Russian help, is commissioned, making it the first nuclear reactor in West Asia.

A satellite picture of the nuclear power plant

The Bushehr plant

Nuclear plant

After striving hard for more than four decades, Iran finally got the Bushehr nuclear reactor, which was constructed with Russia’s help, officially commissioned on August 13. It will take another two months for the country’s first nuclear power plant to start generating electricity.

Work on the Bushehr plant started way back in 1974 with the help of the Federal Republic of Germany. But following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran’s relations with the West became unsteady. The United States imposed economic sanctions on Iran after 63 Americans were taken hostage in Teheran during the revolution. Germany withdrew from the Bushehr project.

Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty

Iran approached many countries, including India, for help in completing the project, which had fully complied with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It was only in 1995 that Russia agreed to step in, despite tremendous pressure from the West. Iran has become the 33rd member of the world’s civilian nuclear club and the first country in West Asia to possess a nuclear reactor.

The neoconservatives in the US and the Government of Israel have been crying hoarse that with the commissioning of the Bushehr reactor, Iran is well on its way to becoming a nuclear power. John Bolton, who was a senior official in the George W. Bush administration, recently called on Israel to bomb the Bushehr plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has certified that the Bushehr reactor is entirely for peaceful purposes. It said no nuclear fuel was being diverted to Iran’s nuclear program. In any case, Teheran has been insisting that its nuclear facility is designed to provide civilian nuclear power.

The Bushehr plant has a light-water reactor. It is difficult to extract weapons-quality plutonium from the spent fuel of a light-water reactor. Russia, which started loading nuclear fuel in the Bushehr plant on August 21, is committed to taking back the spent fuel. This was agreed upon to allay the West’s fear that Teheran may misuse the plutonium.

Deadlines and delivery

Even after the Russian company stepped in to start work at Bushehr in 1998, there were considerable delays, triggered mainly by political pressure emanating from the West. On several occasions, Moscow backtracked on deadlines and the delivery of nuclear fuel. Eventually, the Kremlin seems to have made a calculated decision that Russia’s national interests would be better served by completing the Bushehr plant. Russia stuck to its commitments despite the fact that its relations with the US were ‘reset’ after Barack Obama became the President.

In recent months, there were a few angry exchanges between Moscow and Teheran after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approved new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The Iranian leadership made it abundantly clear that it was upset with both Russia and China for supporting the draconian sanctions.

Iran is one of Russia’s key trading partners. The volume of trade between the two countries is projected to exceed $5 billion by the end of the year. The two countries are currently involved in negotiations involving more than 130 joint ventures that could raise the volume of bilateral trade to $200 billion.

Many of the projects are connected with oil and gas. In a 2008 agreement with Iran, the Russian company Gazprom was given the rights to develop gas fields, build refineries and participate in the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

Iran is the third biggest client of Russian weaponry after China and India. In the last couple of years, Russia has sold weapons worth around $10 billion to Iran.

SA-15

In 2005, Moscow agreed to sell the long-range S-300 air defence missile system to Iran. In 2007, another agreement was signed to sell SA-15 surface-to-air battery systems along with 30 air defence missile systems to safeguard the Bushehr plant.

Moscow has, however, suspended the sale of some categories of surface-to-air missile defence systems to Iran in the wake of the latest U.N. sanctions. But Teheran has not been complaining too much ever since Moscow overcame its last-minute hesitation, under pressure from the West, and delivered the nuclear fuel for the Bushehr reactor.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony at Bushehr, Sergei Kirienko, the head of Russia’s Nuclear Corporation, said countries that abided by the IAEA rules had the right to harness nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, described the commissioning of the nuclear plant as ‘a political victory’ for his country.

The Frontline