Iran Ignores IAEA, EU, and US: Starts Construction of New Nuclear Plant

[onedomino]

Iran Starts Building New Nuclear Plant - Diplomats
Thu Mar 3, 2005 04:36 PM ET
by Louis Charbonneau

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7802209

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has started building a research reactor that could eventually produce enough plutonium for one bomb per year, ignoring calls to scrap the project, diplomats close to the United Nations said on Thursday.

"Iran has laid the foundations for the research reactor at Arak," a Western diplomat close to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

In September, the IAEA board of governors passed a resolution calling on Iran "as a further confidence-building measure, voluntarily to reconsider its decision to start construction of a research reactor modified by heavy water."

Heavy-water reactors can be used to produce significant amounts of bomb-grade plutonium, which can then be extracted from the spent fuel.

Iran also says it wants to break U.N. seals and test "essential" parts for machines for nuclear work, diplomats said. They said this showed Iran's freeze on activity which could produce atomic weapons would be short-lived.

The Western diplomats, who are close to talks between Iran and the European Union's "big three" -- France, Britain and Germany -- said the Iranians had made this request despite the EU's insistence that it keep its promise to refrain from any and all activities linked to uranium enrichment.

"Iran wants to expand quality control checks and maintenance of 'non-essential' enrichment centrifuge parts to 'essential' centrifuge parts that have been sealed by the IAEA under the suspension," a diplomat close to the EU-Iran talks said on condition of anonymity.

Iran has already provoked sharp U.S. and EU criticism by conducting quality control tests of a so-called "non-essential" parts for centrifuges. Iran's voluntary freeze of sensitive nuclear work took effect in November.

But in a significant shift in strategy toward an arch enemy, President Bush was leaning toward backing Europe in offering incentives to Iran, U.S. officials said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the European negotiations with Iran were heading in the "right direction" and Washington was weighing how best to support them.

REACTOR FOUNDATIONS LAID

Diplomats on the IAEA's 35-member board, as well as diplomats close to the IAEA, said they learned the foundations for Iran's research reactor had been laid from photos taken by a commercial satellite.

The United States and other countries critical of Iran have questioned the need for this reactor, which is expected to be ready the end of this decade at the earliest.

"Iran has provided changing and contradictory rationales to the IAEA for this project, which would be well suited for plutonium production," the head of the U.S. delegation to the IAEA meeting, Jackie Sanders, told the IAEA board on Wednesday.

Iranian officials were not available for comment.

IAEA deputy director general Pierre Goldschmidt said earlier this week that Iran planned to proceed with the 40-megawatt heavy water research reactor project but gave no details. This size reactor could yield enough plutonium for approximately one bomb per year, diplomats and nuclear experts say.

Washington accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program. Tehran denies this, insisting its aim is the peaceful generation of electricity.

The European Union also suspects Iran is developing the capability to produce atomic arms but hopes a French, British and German offer of incentives will persuade Iran to abandon any such plans. (do not hold your breath)

Separately, the nations on the IAEA's board of governors urged Iran on Thursday to step up cooperation with U.N. inspectors and backed the EU's offer of incentives if Tehran ends all sensitive nuclear work.

Earlier this week, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran had created a "confidence deficit" by concealing parts of its atomic program for nearly two decades.

A concluding statement from this week's IAEA governing board meeting said it was "essential that Iran provide full transparency and extend proactive cooperation to the agency."

The EU's "big three" states have offered Iran a package of economic and political incentives if it abandons its uranium enrichment program, which could produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons. Tehran has temporarily frozen most of the program but has refused to abandon it.

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[theim]

Well, never saw THAT coming.

 

[onedomino]

Diplomats: Iran Trying to Hide Nuclear Facilities
By Roger Wilkison
Brussels
04 March 2005

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-03-04-voa37.cfm

Western diplomats close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, say Iran has started to build deep tunnels to store nuclear material at a site where it is known to have carried out uranium enrichment activities. The disclosure comes as the United States is considering whether to back an approach by three European countries aimed at getting Iran to dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons program by offering commercial incentives to the Islamic Republic.

The diplomats, all of whom asked not to be identified, say there are many unresolved questions about Iran's nuclear program.

First among those questions is why Iran is building tunnels as much as one kilometer deep at its main uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan and why did it not inform the IAEA about such activity.

One diplomat says he thinks the reason for the tunneling is to hide and protect nuclear components that have been stored there.

Another diplomat says he suspects the tunnels and the use of reinforced construction materials at the site are meant to make the facility resistant to attack by Israel or the United States, which have accused Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies that, saying it wants to use nuclear energy to generate electricity.

But the diplomats have other concerns. They say satellite images indicate that Iran has begun construction work on a research reactor at Arak, southwest of Teheran, which one diplomat says could be used to produce bomb-grade plutonium.

A third concern, according to this diplomat, is that Iran insists on testing parts for centrifuges, which enrich uranium. Iran has agreed to temporarily freeze all enrichment activity while it negotiates with Britain, France and Germany on a package of concessions, including support for its membership in the World Trade Organization, WTO, and the sale of commercial aircraft and aircraft spare parts.

The Bush administration, which until now has taken a tough position toward Iran, is studying whether to endorse the European position with the idea that if the negotiations fail, the blame would most likely fall on Iran, which has steadfastly refused to make its freeze on enrichment permanent. Diplomats say that, if by June there is no progress, the Europeans have indicated that they are prepared to join the United States in referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

On Friday, Iran signaled that membership in the World Trade Organization is not enough of an incentive to get it to end its enrichment program. Iranian Trade Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari is quoted by an Iranian news agency as saying that joining the WTO would only benefit the United States and the European Union by giving them freer access to the Iranian market.

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[5stringJeff]

I think it's time for the Israeli option...

 

[Annie]

I thought they were farther ahead than 'at the end of the decade.' Guess I've been reading stuff wrong. Then there is time.

 

[onedomino]

I thought they were farther ahead than 'at the end of the decade.' Guess I've been reading stuff wrong. Then there is time.

Kathianne, the Russians recently completed a different Iranian reactor for which they have agreed to sell fuel to the Mullahs.

The focus of a considerable amount of controversy in the United States, the nuclear facility at Brushehr, Iran is being built under an agreement between the Russian and Iranian governments for $800-million. Although originally intended to be the location of a German-built reactor in the 1970s, the new reactor will be built to Russian designs, though the original reactor buildings exterior appearance will remain essentially the same. There are two reactors at Bushehr, one is in an advanced stage of completion the other has not been worked on for some time and is not currently scheduled to be completed. [...] According to Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute, if Iran were to withdraw from the Nonproliferation Treaty and renounce the agreement with Russia (to return spent nuclear fuel), the Bushehr reactor could produce a quarter ton of plutonium per year, which Leventhal says is enough for at least 30 atomic bombs. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/bushehr.htm

The fuel that Russia is willing to sell to Iran can be enriched to create nukes: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/u-centrifuge.htm

The "research" reactor mentioned in the first post of this thread http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7802209 , whose construction just started, will produce enough fissile material to make at least one Plutonium nuke per year.

Research reactors. Usually operates at very low power, often only 1–2 MW or less. Frequently uses high-enriched uranium fuel, although most newer models use no more than 20-percent enrichments to make the theft of fuel less attractive. Fertile material ( 238 U for Pu, 6 Li for tritium) can be encapsulated in elements known as “targets” for insertion into the reactor core. The reactor can also employ a fertile blanket of 238 U in which plutonium can be bred. Cooling requirements and shielding requirements are relatively modest. Some research reactors can be refueled while operating, and such reactors are of special concern for plutonium production because they can limit fuel burnup, which enhances the quality of the plutonium compared to that obtained from reactors that require high burnup before shutdown and refueling. Research reactors using nearly 100-percent enriched material produce almost no plutonium in their fuel because the fertile species, 238 U, has been removed. These reactors can, however, be built with a surrounding “blanket” of natural or depleted uranium in which plutonium can be bred efficiently. The Osirak reactor built in Iraq and destroyed by Israeli aircraft was of this type. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/pu-reactors.htm

Also: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf32.htm
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