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Bellona nuclear digest. May 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: August 29, 2003
News
Russia has pressed ahead with plans to build a nuclear plant at the southern port of Bushehr in Iran despite criticism from Washington, which accuses Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program. “The agreement will be signed very soon, perhaps by the end of September. It has been a year since Russian officials began to announce that they are about to sign this agreement. Last week, the Russian government instructed our ministry to sign the protocol in the nearest future,” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. As soon as the protocol is signed, Russia will ship fuel to Iran for the Bushehr reactor, which will then process it to generate power and send all spent nuclear materialwhich can be converted to weapons grade materialback to Russia. The official said the document would be signed during a regular visit by a ministry delegation to the Islamic Republic in coming weeks, but the precise date of the signing was yet to be decided. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a key U.S. arms official, is in Moscow for what is seen as an attempt to persuade Russia to halt nuclear cooperation with Iran and bring the issue of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions before the U.N. Security Council. Iran, which says it is ready to sign the agreement with Russia, has dismissed the U.S. charges, saying it wants to develop nuclear power to satisfy a booming demand for electricity and save its oil and gas reserves for export.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
But it’s unlikely to impact emissions from shipping along the Northern Sea Route.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
The following op-ed, written by Bellona’s Charles Digges, originally appeared in The Moscow Times. In recent months, the Russian nuclear in...