Iran's Russian-Built Nuke Reactor Delayed

Site in Southern Port of Bushehr Was Expected to Be Operational By Year's End

(CBS/AP)  Moscow on Monday dashed Iranian hopes that a Russian-built nuclear reactor will be switched on this year, a blow to Tehran amid persistent tension over its nuclear program.

Officials in Russia and Iran had previously announced plans to switch on the reactor at the southern port of Bushehr this year, giving Iran its first operating nuclear power plant decades after construction started.

"We expect serious results by the end of the year, but the launch itself will not happen," Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko as saying. ITAR-Tass and Interfax had similar reports.

According to the reports, Shmatko blamed the delay on technical issues, but analysts say Moscow has used the project to press Tehran to ease its defiance over its nuclear program.

Iran says the program is purely peaceful, while the U.S. and allies claim Tehran is working to develop nuclear weapons. Russia also says Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons, but it has close ties with Tehran and has used its position as a veto-wielding permanent U.N. Security Council member to water down Western-backed sanctions.

Shmatko's remarks came a day after President Barack Obama pushed for continued pressure on Iran and its nuclear program. During talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Singapore, Mr. Obama said that "time is running out" for Iran to sign on to a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Since September, Medvedev has suggested Russia could support further sanctions against if it did not open its nuclear program to inspections to prove it was not trying to build a bomb. He spoke in similar terms Sunday, avoiding the word sanctions but saying "other options remain on the table" if Iran does not meet its obligations.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Monday that Iranian technicians have moved highly sophisticated technical equipment into a previously secret uranium enrichment site in preparation for starting it up in 2011.

The report offered no estimate of the new plant's capabilities but a senior international official familiar with the watchdog agency's work in Iran said that it appeared designed to produce about a ton of enriched uranium a year.

At Bushehr, Shmatko said construction is proceeding as planned and that Russia "is certain that it will fulfill its commitments to Iran," according to RIA Novosti.

But his remarks raised hackles in Iran, already angry over Russia's foot-dragging on fulfilling a 2007 contract to provide S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Tehran - another deal seen as a Russian lever in relations with Iran.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted the head of Iran's parliamentary committee on national interests and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, as saying that "this hasty expression by (the) Russian energy minister does not look normal."

He urged Iranian nuclear officials to react to the remarks.

Construction of the Bushehr plant started in the 1970s but was abandoned after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Russia pledged to build it in a $1 billion deal sealed in the mid-1990s.

[syedsuhail]

Obama tried to show that he was different from Bush;but to no avail.The character that one has is the most difficult to hide.

US got the A-bombs, and it dropped them on Japan.America has a large,rich, well equipped military and it uses the military to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.So there is a fear that every country will be invaded by this monster devil.So,today Iran is under threat and is seeking to develop its defences;tomorrow it is going to be India,China and North Korea.Then finally,it will be Russia.Obama may say a million things about having nothing to do with Russia.But then why is USA attacking those countries which are friends of Russia?Why is USA competing and discouraging countries like Brunei from opting for Russian investments and trade?

When will the Russians,Indians and Chinese leaders wake up?

[50BMS13]

As soon as Iran gets a nuke, it will be used on the US or Israel. Obama is totally unconcerned. All we hear from Obama is please cooperate with the world Iran. The Bush administration has been warning us for years about the axis of evil....North Korea and Iran. When it happens and we lose 1,000,000 in a mushroom cloud what good is it to blame Obama then. What good is it to take out their Nuclear facilities then? We need to ACT NOW. Bomb the Nuke facilities NOW. Even if we don't bomb them, Israel will. That gets more complex. Get out of Iraq and Iran if we must. But Iran is the threat to take us to WW3. Not al Quaeda. Not the Taliban.

[bubbadubba]

<<<Of course, Russian built, the begining of Cold War II. Why not just make it USSR built.>>>

Unlike the US and Bush who is giving the home of ALL the 9/11 hijackers a reactor? Sorry to have to point that out. Saudi has expressed interest in a nuclear weapon too. There there is UAE and a few other countries in the mideast that Bush has promised reactors to.
"but the Bush WhiteHouse spells it out: ?The United States will assist the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia develop civilian nuclear power.?

[13Omega]

All this Iran nuke talk gives me deja-vu... Oh nevermind, this HAS happened before. Remember Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction"?

All this Iran nuke talk is to instill fear into the US populace so that we will be okay with going to war with them.

What happens when we find no evidence of nuclear weapons? Well what happened in Iraq? The issue will be phased out of the common US citizen's memory by more fear.

Every empire does this at one point or another. If we didn't have fear to keep our minds occupied we would think more about what the government is doing, rather than going along with them hoping they will keep us 'safe'.

[50BMS13]

Bomb it before they get a nuke. Ahmadinejad is a zealous lunatic. If we or the world don't act, Israel will anyways.

[joelwisch]

The content of the story speaks for itself. We are in very, very dangerous times with Iran. I believe we got this far down the road with Iran because we did not do the lonesome cowboy trick. We worked with the world and we seem to have gained something that will be very helpful before it is finished.

Lets keep in mind that the people of Iran don't want the trouble their leaders have been leading their country toward. Does and should Iran have nuclear power plants... very much so. But nuclear weapons would be a very bad thing for Iran. As it now stand, the world would protect Iran from other states with Nuclear weapons, but when Iran gets those warheads, I suspect all bets are off.

First and foremost, I want Russia to do well. Second of all, I want Iran to do well. But those nuclear warheads she is working to obtain are ... trouble.

[RedWings_ninety_one]

Of course, Russian built, the begining of Cold War II. Why not just make it USSR built.