Iran carries out test-run of nuclear power plant

updated 3:08 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2009

BUSHEHR, Iran - Iranian and Russian engineers carried out a test-run of Iran's first nuclear power plant Wednesday, a major step toward starting up a facility that the U.S. once hoped to prevent because of fears over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Washington worried Iran would turn spent fuel from the plant's reactor into plutonium, which could then be used to build a nuclear warhead, and U.S. officials pressured Moscow for years to stop helping Iran build the electricity-generating facility.

American opposition to the plant eased when Iran agreed in 2005 to return spent fuel to Russia to ensure it can't be reprocessed into plutonium. Russia is providing enriched uranium fuel for the plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

But the U.S. and its allies say there are deep questions about whether Iran intends to use other parts of its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons. Tehran denies that.

The United States said Wednesday that the fuel deal with Russia shows Tehran does not need the most controversial part of its nuclear program — facilities to produce its own enriched uranium.

The arrangement with Russia is "an appropriate mechanism for Iran to see the benefits of the peaceful use of nuclear energy," State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said in Washington. "It also demonstrates that Iran does not need to develop any kind of indigenous uranium enrichment capacity."

The U.N. Security Council, the U.S. and other countries have demanded that Iran suspend enrichment because the process not only can produce fuel for a reactor, but can be used to develop highly enriched uranium needed to make nuclear bombs.

'Very bad news'
Iran denies it is seeking to build atomic weapons, and says it has a right to produce its own fuel for several nuclear power plants it plans to build. It says relying on imported fuel for its entire reactor program would leave it vulnerable to cutoffs as political pressure.

Iranian officials on Wednesday claimed further progress in expanding the uranium enrichment program, saying the number of centrifuges operating at its enrichment plant has increased to 6,000, up from 5,000 in November.

In Israel, which has been one of the most vocal nations accusing Iran of seeking to develop atomic weapons, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the tests at Bushehr "should be understood as very bad news for the whole of the international community" because it shows Iran's nuclear program is progressing.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that "time is slipping through our fingers" in preventing Iran from developing a weapon. He called for "harsh sanctions" and a "willingness to consider other options" if sanctions don't succeed — a reference to military action.

"We do not take any option off the table regarding to Iran's nuclear program," he said.

Iran has warned of strong retaliation — including stopping oil shipments through the Persian Gulf or hitting U.S. bases there — if Israel or the United States carries out military strikes on its nuclear facilities.

Tests could take months
The tests at Bushehr brought the power station closer to full operation. But Iran and Russia's top nuclear officials, touring the facility Wednesday, would not say when exactly electricity production would begin.

The opening of the 1,000-megawatt, light-water reactor, under construction for 14 years, has repeatedly been delayed by construction and supply glitches. Russian began shipping fuel for the plant in 2007. Iran has said it aims to operate the reactor by the end of the year.

The tests "could take between four and seven months," Iran's nuclear chief, Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, told reporters. "We are approaching full exploitation of this plant."

Russian nuclear head Sergei Kiriyenko said that Bushehr had "remarkable progress in recent months" and that technicians were "approaching the final stage."

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