Russia Delivers Nuclear Fuel To Iran

Russia has shipped the first batch of nuclear fuel to Iran and claims to have assurances that the fuel will be used for civilian purposes only.

"The first stage (of delivering fuel) was completed on December 16, 2007: Containers with fuel which had previously been sealed by IAEA inspectors were delivered to the site and placed in special storage," Plant constructor Atomstroiexport said.

Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Bushehr, which is nearing completion, will be Iran's first nuclear power station.

The delivery of fuel is likely to have far-reaching diplomatic repercussions because the United States and other countries, which suspect Iran of harboring ambitions to acquire a nuclear weapon, have urged Moscow not to dispatch the fuel.

Tehran says its nuclear program is designed purely to generate electricity. Russia says Bushehr is being built in line with guidelines set by the United Nation's nuclear watchdog and there is no risk of Iran acquiring military technology.

I do not feel comforted by this at all.

Iran's got its own declared nuclear enrichment program going, which would make the Russian shipment superfluous, especially if all the Iranian program's nuclear material was meant for civilian purposes.

Iran seeks enrichment not for civilian purposes, but for nuclear weapons, and the Iranian regime has made no bones about seeking to expand its enrichment capabilities more than tenfold from the 3,000 declared centrifuges to 50,000.

Bushehr might be a civilian program, but the Natanz facility enables weaponization of nuclear materials by enriching uranium to weapons grade. All it takes is time.

UPDATE:
Iran is claiming that the Natanz facility is going to produce uranium for another nuclear plant to be built in Darkhovein.

Bushehr and Darkhovein were both projects planned before the 1979 Revolution. It was not clear how much construction had been done at Darkhovein. The location is also sometimes spelled Darkhovin, or referred to by other nearby place names, including Ahvaz, Esteghlal and Karun.

Mr. Aghazadeh said today that Iran needed to increase the centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment plant from 3,000 to 50,000, saying that with the current 3,000, it could only produce fuel for a 100-megawatt plant.

The White House had signaled on Monday that the arrival of the fuel could help convince Iran to curb its enrichment program. President Bush that If Iran accepted the uranium for a civilian power plant, “there was no need for them to learn how to enrich,” Reuters reported.

I think the US is engaging in wishful thinking if it believes that the Iranians aren't going to continue with enrichment at Natanz and/or elsewhere just because they're receiving enriched uranium from Russia.