RUSSIA has delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr atomic power station, a step Western powers worried by Tehran's nuclear ambitions had urged Moscow not to take.
Anticipating a diplomatic storm over the announcement, Russia said yesterday that Tehran had given it assurances the fuel sent to Bushehr would not be used for other purposes, and it urged Tehran to drop its own uranium enrichment program.
But a senior Iranian official said the country would not under any circumstances halt its enrichment program – the source of friction with foreign powers worried the enriched uranium could be used in a nuclear bomb.
Russia, building Iran's first ever nuclear power station at Bushehr under a US$1 billion contract, has been delaying delivery of the fuel for months, citing payment problems.
Russia's foreign ministry said the project was back on track: "On December 16, the delivery of fuel began from Russia to the Iranian atomic power station in Bushehr." Iran confirmed the first batch of about 80 metric tons had been delivered.
"The first shipment of fuel for the Bushehr plant has arrived in Iran," the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, told the official IRNA news agency.
Iran says its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes only but the US and its allies suspect Tehran has ambitions to build a nuclear weapon.
Western powers had pressed Russia not to send fuel to Bushehr as part of an international effort to pressure Tehran into curbing its nuclear program.
Russia says Bushehr is being built under supervision of the UN's nuclear watchdog, ruling out any military use for the fuel or technology. It said it had been given new guarantees on this before sending the fuel.
