TEHRAN -- After years of delay, Russia announced Monday that it had delivered its first shipment of nuclear fuel to a reactor in southern Iran, a move Washington had long tried to delay to pressure Tehran not to pursue its own enrichment program.
Delivery of the nuclear fuel rods will ensure that the $1-billion power plant being built by Russia's state-owned Atomstroyexport in the port city of Bushehr will be up and running by next year, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told state television.
He cast Russia's decision as evidence that Iran had convinced other countries that it was pursuing nuclear power only for peaceful purposes. Read More
