Here's what I don't understand - why does American government bitc.h about Iran's decision to build nuclear power plant, impose sanctions on Iran and scream about it at the top of their lugs.... when it's Russia that is building the nuclear power plant. Where's the logic here?

Should US threaten Russia insteead of Iran? Or America is afraid to say one bad word about Moscow?



02/ 07/ 2008


MOSCOW, July 2 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian parliament's ratification on Wednesday of an amendment to a major international treaty on nuclear security will not affect construction of a nuclear power plant in Iransenior diplomat said.

sia is building the $1 billion Bushehr facility, Iran's first nuclear power plant, in the south of the country in accordance with a 1995 contract.


"Our project in Bushehr will meet all nuclear security standards, just like [nuclear facilities] do in Russia," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said at a parliamentary hearing.

Russia signed the UN Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material in 1980.

The treaty obliges each signatory to take appropriate steps to ensure that nuclear material is protected whether on a country's territory, on board a ship or aircraft under its jurisdiction, or being transported internationally.

States parties to the convention gathered in July 2005 to amend the document and strengthen its provisions.

The amended Convention makes it legally binding for states to protect nuclear facilities and material in civilian use, storage and transport.

It also provides for expanded cooperation between countries regarding rapid measures to locate and recover stolen or smuggled nuclear material, to mitigate any radiological consequences of sabotage, and to prevent and combat related offences.

The lower house of the Russian parliament ratified the amended document, which will take effect once it has been ratified by two-thirds of the signatories.

Russia earlier said start up tests involving nuclear fuel at Bushehr would begin this fall.

Russia delivered its eighth and final nuclear fuel shipment to Bushehr on January 28, supplying a total of 82 metric tons of low-enriched uranium to the light-water reactor.

Kislyak said Russia would not transfer to Tehran the technologies used to build and operate the plant, and the spent fuel from the Bushehr reactor will be brought back to Russia.

RIA Novosti - Russia - Russia says new nuclear security rules will not affect Bushehr

Short reply: Our issue is with Iran, harping on Russia would just serve to confuse the issue. France could be making the plant and it wouldn't make a difference.




I'm guessing we apply some diplomatic pressure but our issue isn't that Russia makes power plants, it's to a degree that Iran would be operating it and to a larger degree thier Uranium enrichment.

In the deal Russia had with Iran on the plant Russia would provide the fuel and would also be responsible for collecting and removing it. At least giving the US some warning if Iran wanted to make a bomb, assuming oversight was in place, as they'd have to break schedule.

But now Iran has their centerfuges, and the IAEA really doesn't have any idea if they're making weapons grade uranium with them or not.

Yep.

If Russia were administering the plant (and the weapons fuel it produces) and were willing to take responsibility for it, I would be fine with Iran having nuclear power.

The issue is Iran getting weapons grade fuel. Not Iran getting nuclear power.


It seems Russia has a huge inferiority complex right now. Many Russian users on here want to imagine that there is some kind of cold war still going on between the US and Russia. I guess because then Russia can pretend that it still has major significance in the world or something.

The truth is that none of us feel threatened by Russia. We dont view them as an enemy or a threat, even though they seem to view us that way. We view them the way we used to view (and sometimes still view) France; occasionally annoying, short sighted, and naive.

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