AFP: There is a one hundred percent guarantee that Iran’s first nuclear power plant, set for its official launch on Saturday, will be used only for peaceful purposes, a top Russian official said.
MOSCOW, August 20, 2010 (AFP) – There is a one hundred percent guarantee that Iran’s first nuclear power plant, set for its official launch on Saturday, will be used only for peaceful purposes, a top Russian official said.
“Of course there is a one hundred percent guarantee, because this guarantee is not one formulated by Moscow but by objective fact,” Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency.
He said that the fact that Russia had delivered the fuel for the plant and would take back spent fuel for reprocessing showed that all non-proliferation rules applied to the plant.
Iran is to formally launch the Russian-built plant in the southern port city of Bushehr on Saturday in a major landmark for its controversial nuclear drive.
Russia has been building the plant in Iran since the mid-1990s but the project has been marred by a series of delays and the issue is hugely delicate amid the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme.
