Green Lantern
December 17th, 2007, 8:03:16 PM
In an attempt to end the Iranian uranium enrichment program, a deal was brokered to sell them fissile material through Russia.
The result:
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran received its first nuclear fuel from Russia on Monday, paving the way for the startup of its reactor in 2008.
Both the U.S. and Russia said that with the shipment, the Iranians would no longer have any reason to produce enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon.
But Iran said it would continue its enrichment activities at a separate facility, in the central city of Natanz, to provide fuel for another nuclear reactor. Not only that, it indicated that construction had begun on just such a reactor, in Darkhovin in southwestern Iran.
"We are currently constructing a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant in Darkhovin," Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said on state television. Previously Iran had always described the Darkhovin plant as being in the planning stages...
And the President said: "If that's the case — if the Russians are willing to do that, which I support — then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich," Bush said in Fredricksburg, Va. "If the Iranians accept that uranium for civilian nuclear power, then there's no need for them to learn how to enrich."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/russia_iran
The result:
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran received its first nuclear fuel from Russia on Monday, paving the way for the startup of its reactor in 2008.
Both the U.S. and Russia said that with the shipment, the Iranians would no longer have any reason to produce enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon.
But Iran said it would continue its enrichment activities at a separate facility, in the central city of Natanz, to provide fuel for another nuclear reactor. Not only that, it indicated that construction had begun on just such a reactor, in Darkhovin in southwestern Iran.
"We are currently constructing a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant in Darkhovin," Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said on state television. Previously Iran had always described the Darkhovin plant as being in the planning stages...
And the President said: "If that's the case — if the Russians are willing to do that, which I support — then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich," Bush said in Fredricksburg, Va. "If the Iranians accept that uranium for civilian nuclear power, then there's no need for them to learn how to enrich."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/russia_iran