IAEA: Iran Power Plant Under Safeguards

Flurry of Speculation as Iran Poised to Generate Electricity

International Atomic Energy Agency head Amano Yukiya today noted that Iran efforts to attempt to generate electricity at the Bushehr power plant are taking place under full international safeguards.

The Bushehr plant has been an extremely long time in the construction, and Russia, whose engineers constructed the plant, insists there is absolutely zero risk of any weapons proliferation from the energy generating facility. Iran began moving fuel into the reactor core today, with expectations to start generating electricity in January.

But despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s insistence that she has no problem with Bushehr in and of itself, top Obama adviser Dennis Ross, speaking today before AIPAC, condemned the plant as a provocation.

Iran’s own behavior has demonstrated that it prefers defiance and secrecy to transparency and peace,” Ross insisted. Members in good standing of the IAEA, of which Iran is one, have every right under international law to generate electricity, and the IAEA has repeatedly verified Iran’s non-diversion of nuclear material to any non-civilian purpose.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.