Western fears grow as Iran hails success of nuclear plant tests

Published on Wednesday 25 February 2009 22:15

A DEFIANT Iran has celebrated another major milestone in its controversial quest for nuclear power while rebuffing suggestions it has slowed down its uranium enrichment programme.

Tehran yesterday hailed "successful tests" at its first nuclear reactor at Bushehr – 35 years after work began on the project. Only "virtual" fuel rods made of lead were used in the highly-publicised event at the dome-shaped facility on the Persian Gulf coast, which bristles with anti-aircraft guns.

None of the low-enriched uranium nuclear fuel supplied last year by Russia is likely to be used until Bushehr begins full operation, possibly later this year.

Yet the inaugural tests, proudly conducted in front of international journalists, will heighten Western concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, despite Tehran's insistence that its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating electricity.

Israel has said Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010.

"We're celebrating Bushehr's pre-commissioning which means we are getting closer to the launch of the plant," said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency. "This virtual test was successful."

He also announced that the country had increased to 6,000 the number of centrifuges enriching uranium at Natanz, a far more controversial underground facility in central Iran. More centrifuges would be installed by next year, he proclaimed, without providing a figure.

Mohammad ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that Iran appeared to have made a "political decision" to do less enrichment than it physically could.

His agency reported that out of nearly 4,000 centrifuges operating at the Natanz site, only 164 had been added since November – when Barack Obama won the US presidential elections. Most analysts had expected the number to be nearer 6,000 in the IAEA's report.

Some Iran experts had interpreted this as a tacit goodwill gesture from Tehran to the Obama administration. Mr Agazadeh's insistence yesterday that Iran was pressing ahead at full steam is likely to be seen as a bargaining tactic.

"We have not changed our schedule in Natanz. We have neither slowed down or accelerated our activities there," he said. "America should face reality and accept living with a nuclear Iran."

Sergei Kiriyenko, the visiting head of Russia's state nuclear company, hailed "significant improvements" at Bushehr. "I'm very satisfied with what I saw," Bushehr's "construction phase" was finally over, he said.

The Islamic Republic insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful, while Russia has shrugged off western criticism of Moscow's role in the 1,000-megawatt light-water Bushehr reactor. The facility was built by the Russian state company, Atomstroiexport, in a deal worth an estimated $1 billion.

Moscow, which has also expressed concern about Iran's nuclear programme, insists the Bushehr plant is purely civilian in nature and can not be used for weapons development.

Work on the reactor began in 1974, with the help of the German contractor Siemens, when the American-backed Shah still ruled Iran. Bushehr was mothballed after Iran's Islamic Revolution five years later. Russia took over the reactor's construction in 1995, but the project became better known for its setbacks than its progress. Iranian officials suspected Moscow was stalling on the plant because it feared upsetting the United States, while Russia accused Iran of falling behind on payments.

Tehran has provided Russia with written guarantees that it will not use uranium supplied by Moscow for any purpose other than civil energy and all spent fuel will be returned to Russia for reprocessing.