In Iran, opposition to uranium plan grows
TEHRAN - Senior Iranian lawmakers yesterday rejected a UN-backed plan to ship much of the country’s uranium abroad for further enrichment, raising more doubts about the likelihood that Tehran will finally approve the deal.
The plan would requires Iran to send 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium - around 70 percent of its stockpile - to Russia in one batch by the end of the year, easing concerns among the United States and its allies that the material would be used for a bomb.
After further enrichment in Russia, France would convert the uranium into fuel rods that would be returned to Tehran for use in a reactor that produces medical isotopes.
Iran has indicated that it may agree to send only part of its stockpile in several shipments. Should the talks fail to help Iran obtain the fuel from abroad, Iran has threatened to enrich uranium to the higher level needed to power the research reactor domestically.
The Tehran reactor needs uranium enriched to about 20 percent, higher than the 3.5 percent-enriched uranium Iran is producing for a nuclear power plant it plans to build in southwestern Iran. Enriching uranium to even higher levels can produce weapons-grade materials.
“We are totally opposed to the proposal to send 3.5 percent enriched uranium in return for 20 percent enriched fuel,’’ senior lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi was quoted by the semiofficial ISNA news agency as saying.
Boroujerdi, who heads the parliament’s National Security Committee, said the priority for Iran was to buy nuclear fuel and hold on to its own uranium. He also said there was no guarantee that Russia or France will keep to the deal and supply nuclear fuel to Iran if Tehran ships them its enriched uranium.
Kazem Jalali, another senior lawmaker, said Iran wants nuclear fuel first before agreeing to ship its enriched uranium stocks to Russia and France even if it decides to strike a deal.
“They need to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran first . . . the West is not trustworthy,’’ the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Jalali said Iran needs fuel and putting conditions to deliver it for the research reactor is unacceptable.
“Countries possessing fuel are required, under international rules, to provide fuel for such reactors. Putting conditions is basically wrong,’’ he said.
Jalali said Iran holds a 10 percent share in a Eurodif nuclear plant in France purchased more than three decades earlier but is not allowed to get a gram of the uranium it produces.
“Iran is a shareholder in Eurodif but doesn’t enjoy its rights. This shows the French are not reliable,’’ Jalali said.
Areva, the state-run French nuclear company, has described Iran as a “sleeping partner’’ in Eurodif.
