The
Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr has international approval and is
supervised by the UN’s nuclear agency. However, the UN security council has
slapped four rounds of sanctions against Iran over a separate track of its
nuclear program — its efforts to refine uranium, which could eventually be used
to create material for a weapon.
“Today,
we witnessed an important development in the start up process. After fuel is
injected into the heart of the reactor, the reactor door is closed. Then, it
will take one or two months to reach a 40 or 50 percent nominal power,” Vice
President Ali Akbar Salehi told a press conference broadcast on state TV.
He
pointed out that the fueling had occurred in spite of the current sanctions.
“The
great Iranian nation can manage the sanctions with its resistance, efforts and
endeavors and this is its proof,” he said, adding that the reactor should start
producing electricity “by mid February.” When the 1,000 megawatt plant
originally received the nuclear fuel shipment in August, Salehi predicted it
would produce electricity by November, but a leak in a storage pool delayed the
process for months — the latest setback for a reactor first commissioned in the
1970s.
The US
recently withdrew its long-standing opposition to the plant after Russia
satisfied concerns over how it would be fueled and the fate of the spent fuel
rods.
Under a
deal signed in 2005, Russia will provide nuclear fuel to Iran, then take back
the spent fuel, a step meant as a safeguard to ensure it cannot be diverted
into a weapons program. Iran has also agreed to allow the UN’s nuclear agency
to monitor Bushehr and the fuel deliveries.
Worries
remain, however, over Iran’s program to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel since
the process can also be used to create weapons grade material, something Iran
says it has no interest in doing.
The
United States claims that the fuel deal with Russia shows Tehran does not need
to enrich its own uranium, but Iran maintains it will build other nuclear power
plants and has to have its own fuel source.
Iran is
already producing its own nuclear fuel — uranium enriched to about 3.5 percent.
It also has started a pilot program of enriching uranium to 20 percent, which
officials say is needed for a medical research reactor.
Weapons
grade material has to be enriched to 90 percent.
The
Bushehr project dates backs to 1974, when Iran’s US-backed Shah Mohammed Reza
Pahlavi contracted with the German company Siemens to build the reactor. The
company withdrew from the project after the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the
shah and brought hard-line clerics to power.
In 1992,
Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to complete the project and work
began in 1995.
Under the
contract, the Bushehr nuclear power plant was originally scheduled to come on
stream in July 1999 but the start up has been delayed repeatedly by
construction and supply glitches.
Moscow
has cited technical reasons for the delays, but Iranian officials have
sporadically criticized Russia, some calling Moscow an “unreliable partner.”
Russians began shipping fuel for the plant in 2007 and carried out a test-run
in February 2009.
The
Bushehr plant overlooks the Persian Gulf and is visible from several miles
(kilometers) away with its cream-colored dome dominating the green landscape.
Soldiers
maintain a 24-hour watch on roads leading up to the plant, manning
anti-aircraft guns and supported by numerous radar stations.