Iran has right to develop nuclear fuel cycle - Russian official

Ria Novosti:

Aug 2, 2005

Russia has acknowledged Iran's right to develop a nuclear fuel cycle (NFC), although it urged countries without an NFC to avoid developing nuclear programs, a source at the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, Rosatom, said Tuesday.

He said the resumption of work on NFC development would not affect scheduled deliveries of nuclear fuel from Russia to Iran.

Russia is finishing the construction of the first power-generating unit with a 1,000 MW capacity at the Bushehr nuclear power plant (NPP) on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf. The plant will become operational in 2006. According to a protocol signed in the beginning of the year, Russia will deliver up to 80 metric tons of nuclear fuel to the Bushehr NPP.

"We will deliver up to 80 tons of low-grade uranium, and only when it is necessary for technological purposes," the source said.

Commenting on the decision of Iranian authorities to break the IAEA seals on the equipment at the Isfahan nuclear facility in order to resume work on uranium enrichment, the Rosatom official said, "It should be done only by IAEA experts because it's the agency's seals, after all."

Iranian authorities notified the IAEA about their readiness to resume the activities at the Isfahan facility on Monday. Later, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Aghamohammadi announced that Iran has decided to meet the global community halfway and postpone the resumption of activities at the Isfahan nuclear facility for at least two days.