Russia Defends Helping Iran Build Nuclear Reactor

Russia brushed aside strong U.S. criticism Wednesday and said it had agreed with Tehran to speed up construction of an $800-million nuclear reactor in Iran and to consider building another.

The United States, which has branded Iran part of an “axis of evil” for allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction, fiercely opposes the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said Washington had failed to show that Iran had broken any international regulations over the nuclear program.

“We always tell our American colleagues that all Iran-Russia cooperation is in accordance with international regulations and the resolutions of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Rumyantsev said.

Moscow’s continued participation in the project to build a nuclear reactor near the western port of Bushehr had depended, he said, on Iranian assurances that all spent fuel would be returned to Russia -- a demand advanced by U.S. experts.

Iran insists that the Bushehr reactor is for purely civilian power production, but U.S. officials question why Iran, the second-biggest oil producer in OPEC and with the second-biggest gas reserves in the world, would need it.

Russia says it would be difficult for the civilian reactor to be adapted to produce nuclear weapons, a stance the U.S. government disputes.

U.S. officials earlier this month also charged that two other nuclear sites being built in central Iran were of a type that could be used for manufacturing nuclear warheads.

The Bushehr reactor, due to begin working at the end of 2003, is under the supervision of the atomic energy agency, or IAEA, while the other two plants are not due to be inspected by the agency until late February.