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The US sought to reassure Israel that Iran is still a year away from
building a nuclear weapon, as Iran's leadership hailed the fuelling of
its first nuclear power plant on Saturday. By agency in Tehran and Telegraph reporter
Published: 10:15AM BST 21 Aug 2010 Iranian television showed live pictures of Iran's nuclear chief Ali
Akbar Salehi and his Russian counterpart watching a fuel rod assembly
being prepared for insertion into the reactor at Bushehr.
"Despite all the pressures, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western
nations, we are now witnessing the start-up of the largest symbol of
Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," Mr Salehi told a news conference
afterwards. He described the plant as "a symbol of Iranian resistance
and patience". The plant, built with Russian help, is expected to begin producing
electricity in the next few weeks. Iran is suspected of wanting to build nuclear weapons. Successfully
operating a nuclear reactor will be seen by many in the Middle East and
wider afield as a significant step forward for its nuclear industry
towards that goal. Israel has often warned that it cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran,
and there are still fears that Israel could launch a pre-emptive
military strike on Iran which could ignite war across the Middle East,
although bombing an operative reactor could release deadly radioactivity. Gary Samore, President Obama's adviser on nuclear issues, tried to ease
tensions among Israeli officials by telling the New York Times that the
process of converting nuclear material into a weapon that worked would
take at least 12 months. Israeli officials have expressed disappointment that diplomacy failed to
stop the plant, and have warned about their concerns at the development. Iran has always insisted that it is developing nuclear expertise for
peaceful, civilian power generation, and that it has no ambitions to
build a bomb. Russia insists that its help at Bushehr will not assist Iranian efforts
to build a bomb. Russia will both supply Bushehr with fuel and take back
the spent fuel - which could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium. "The construction of the nuclear plant at Bushehr is a clear example
showing that any country, if it abides by existing international
legislation and provides effective, open interaction with the IAEA
(International Atomic Energy Agency), should have the opportunity to
access the peaceful use of the atom," said Sergei Kiriyenko, Russian
state nuclear corporation chief, at the news conference. The United Nations Security Council passed a fourth resolution in June
calling on Iran to stop its uranium enrichment, and imposing new sanctions. Over the next two weeks, 163 fuel assemblies, equal to 80 tons of
uranium fuel, will be moved inside the building and then into the
reactor core. The uranium fuel used at Bushehr is well below the more than 90 percent
enrichment needed for a nuclear warhead. Iran says it plans to build other reactors and says designs for a second
reactor in southwestern Iran are taking shape. The Bushehr project dates backs to 1974, when Iran's American-backed
government began plans to build the reactor. Fuelling the plant began a day after a new surface-to-surface missile
was test fired. In recent months Iranian officials have warned of the
danger of attacks on the Islamic Republic.
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