Russia And Iran Building Strong Nuclear Ties

by Hooman Peimani

A case in point is Russian Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev four-day visit to Tehran last month. Referring to his meeting with the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Gholam Reza Agazadeh, Rumyantsev announced in Moscow that Iran's 1,000-megawatt Bushehr Nuclear-Power Reactor (BNPR) would become operational in December 2003.

Rumyantsev, whose ministry is interested in building at least six more nuclear power reactors in Iran, denied the U.S. allegations on Iran's clandestine efforts to create "nuclear weapons or develop sensitive nuclear technologies."

"Iran has signed all required international agreements and undertaken full obligations on transparency and checks... and has unfailingly fulfilled them," Rumyantsev said Dec. 27 in Moscow.

The timing of Rumyantsev's Tehran visit was remarkable. The visit took place about two weeks after Washington evinced its anger over Iran's nuclear facilities in Arak and Natanz allegedly used for its nuclear-weapon project and supposedly established with Russia's assistance.

These accusations have been rejected by both Iran and Russia on the ground that the reactor's specifications and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection regime remove the possibility of its use for military purposes.

Energy Minister Rumyantsev reiterated this point as he remarked in Moscow: "Iran is using nuclear energy exclusively for peaceful purposes. There are no programs to create nuclear weapons or develop sensitive nuclear technologies."

To allay the U.S. government fears, Iran and Russia have agreed in principle to transfer the BNPR's used nuclear fuel to Russia.

According to Rumyantsev, an official agreement on that matter would be signed in January as the Russian Foreign Ministry was analyzing the text of the proposed agreement.

Being built in Iran's Persian Gulf port of Bushehr, the $800 million BNPR has been a source of conflict between Russia and the United States since the early 1990s when the former agreed to finish it.

Prior to the Iranian revolution of 1979, a German company, Siemens, began the reactor project but refused to finish it after the revolution. The Iranian government revitalized the Bushehr project in the early 1990s when the massive destruction of the Iranian infrastructure during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) and the rapid growth of the Iranian population created a severe shortage of electricity.

In the absence of any interested Western contractor to finish the BNPR, which was damaged during the Iraqi air strikes in the 1980s, Iran turned to Russia, whose severe economic problems made it interested in obtaining the lucrative project. Moscow's common stand with Iran on certain regional and international issues and its recent friendly ties with Tehran made it a desirable contractor for the Iranians.

The BNPR is only a first major project for the Russians who, over the last few years, have reiterated their interest in expanding their non-military nuclear ties with Iran. Having lost most of the markets of their friends and allies when the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, the Russians' failure to secure access to other markets has since inclined them to expand economic relations with those few countries, which, because of economic imperatives and/or political considerations, are interested in such relations.

As a rich neighboring country with friendly ties with Russia, Iran has become one of its major economic partners. In particular, its increasing need for power generation has created, and will continue to create, a lucrative growing market for Russia's nuclear power reactors.

Unsurprisingly, the Russian government is trying to receive more contracts for constructing such reactors from the Iranians who are planning to generate 6,000 megawatts of nuclear power over the next ten years. Thus, in August 2002, the Russian government announced its readiness to build six more reactors in Iran.

Against that background, certain statements made by Russia's nuclear authorities regarding Rumyantsev's visit to Iran have suggested Russia's hope for increasing its share of Iran's nuclear power market.

In statements issued on Dec. 26, the Russian Atomic Power Ministry referred to the expanding nuclear cooperation between Russia and Iran. The statements did not elaborate on the specifics of such cooperation.

However, after talking to the Iranian nuclear authorities in Tehran, Rumyantsev's remark in reference to Iran's plan to increase its nuclear power generation, suggested that Russia's construction of more nuclear power reactors could be part of Iranian-Russian expanding nuclear cooperation. "Russia is extremely interested in discussing such a project," said the energy minister.

*Dr. Hooman Peimani works as an independent consultant with international organizations in Geneva and does research in International Relations.