http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=4&u=/nm/20050303/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc
Iran Starts Building New Nuclear Plant - Diplomats
World - Reuters
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites) 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.
Diplomats on the IAEA's 35-member board, as well as diplomats close to
the IAEA, said they learned the foundations 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
nuclear ambitions are confined to the peaceful generation of electricity.
The European Union (news - web sites) 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.
IAEA BOARD BACKS EU INITIATIVE
Separately, the 35 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 and urged Tehran to improve its transparency and
cooperation with U.N. inspectors.
A concluding statement from this week's IAEA governing board meeting
said the 35 members unanimously said it was "essential that Iran
provide full transparency and extend proactive cooperation to the
agency."
The conclusion also said: "Support was expressed for the negotiations
currently being undertaken between Iran, France, Germany and the UK
... and (the board) expressed the hope that an agreement would be
reached on long-term arrangements."
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.
The United States has so far refused to join forces with the EU, but
is now considering whether to actively back the European offer of
incentives to Tehran -- a move that European diplomats say would
significantly boost the EU3 negotiating position.
(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran)
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