Israel Matzav

Russia ready to launch Iranian nuke plant; IAEA has no comment

The Russian state company that is building Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant said on Monday that it is entering the final stages of preparation for the reactor's launch, and by year end the launch will be 'irreversible.' The feckless IAEA has declined comment, while Condi Clueless' State Department is in denial.

Atomstroiexport chief Leonid Reznikov said that by year's end the company will take steps that will make the launch of the Bushehr plant "irreversible."

Company spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said the launch date will be determined after talks between Russian and Iranian nuclear officials this month.

Iranian officials have said that Bushehr would be launched this fall.

The International Atomic Energy Agency declined comment.

Nonproliferation expert David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks countries under nuclear suspicion, suggested that the steps referred to by Russia probably involved the loading of fuel into the reactor.

He said there are no irreversible steps, but taking out after it was loaded would be troublesome because it would require dealing with irradiated fuel and a contaminated reactor core.

That makes the costs of reversing the launch pretty steep-sounding to me, but the Bush administration continues to be in denial.

A US counterproliferation official said it was not at all clear that Bushehr would be operational as soon as the Russian statements suggested. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the conclusion was preliminary and the Bush administration has not released a broad assessment of progress at the site.

...

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack did not comment directly on the Russian statements but pointed out that the deal between Russia and Iran on Bushehr has long been in place.

"In a sense, it is a kind of model for Iran being able to have civilian nuclear energy without the fuel cycle," he said. "Quite frankly, the international system has at this point decided they can't be trusted."

And why exactly does McCormack think it will stop there?

Denial - it ain't just a river in Egypt.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:51 PM