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“Russia Inks Deal to Build Two Nuclear Plants in Iran”
by The Age   
November 12th, 2014

Russia has agreed to build two new nuclear-power reactors for Iran under a program critics say is dangerous.

Sergei Kiriyenko (right), head of the Russian state nuclear monopoly Rosatom, and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi shake hands during a signing ceremony in Moscow.

Sergei Kiriyenko (right), head of the Russian state nuclear monopoly Rosatom, and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi shake hands during a signing ceremony in Moscow.

Moscow: Russia agreed on Tuesday to build two new nuclear-power reactors in Iran, with a possibility of six more after that, in a deal that greatly expands nuclear co-operation between the two countries.

The agreement shows that Russia is pressing ahead with its own vision for ensuring that Iran does not build nuclear weapons, by supplying civilian power technology that will operate under international monitoring. The approach won acceptance from the International Atomic Energy Agency and, grudgingly, from the Bush administration over the last decade as Russia completed Iran's first civilian nuclear plant, at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf coast.

The United States was initially critical of the Russian policy of providing civilian reactors to Iran, but later withdrew its objections. Russia agreed to complete the reactor, which was begun as a German project before the Iranian Revolution in 1979, on the condition that all the nuclear fuel used at the plant over its lifetime be supplied and reprocessed by Russian companies.

By demanding that Iran buy Russian reactor fuel, the authorities in Moscow deprived Iran of part of its justification for developing the ability to enrich uranium at home. But the deal has not halted the Iranian enrichment program. Iranian officials say they also require enriched uranium for medical purposes.

The United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other nations want the enrichment program to be shut down because the same industrial process, using centrifuges, can be used to produce materials for nuclear weapons. Critics of the Russian policy say any nuclear technology transfer to Iran is dangerous.

The director of the Russian state nuclear power company signed the agreement for the additional reactors in Moscow on Monday with his Iranian counterpart at a televised ceremony at the headquarters of the company, known as Rhizotomy.

The two new reactors will be of the pressurised water type and will be built next to the Bushehr plant, Rhizotomy said in a statement. Construction and fuel handling will be monitored by the IAEA, as it was for the existing plant, the company said.

After that, another two reactors could be built at Bushehr and four at a location still to be determined, it said.

Russia has built plants in India and is seeking more projects throughout South-east Asia. It is experimenting with reactors for small countries, and with models that could float on pontoons berthed in bustling Third World ports.

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