'Russia unalarmed by Iran's uranium enrichment'

Moscow, Apr 13: Former Atomic Energy Minister Viktor Mikhailov has said Russian nuclear specialists were not alarmed by Iran's achievement of uranium enrichment at 3.5 per cent.

''Any enrichment of uranium up to 20 per cent is not forbidden by IAEA rules and is used for obtaining fuel for nuclear power stations, not for military purposes,'' Mr Mikhailov told Itar-Tass news agency yesterday.

He expressed satisfaction with the fact that ''one more country has mastered the first stage of peaceful nuclear technology.'' ''This is an experimental enrichment of several grams of uranium and it would be early to speak about the creation of a full nuclear cycle in Iran,'' Mr Mikhailov, who heads the Institute for Strategic Stability under the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry said.

He made it clear that in order to have such cycle for the production of own fuel at least for the initial loading of a nuclear reactor ''one needs to have not some hundred-and-a-half centrifuges, but thousands times more.'' ''For that, respective technologies and a very costly set of equipments are needed,'' Mr Mikhailov added.

''Iranian nuclear specialists can not produce fuel for a nuclear power station at the present moment, nor they can make a nuclear weapon,'' he emphasised.

Meanwhile, a senior expert at the Moscow-based Centre for Global Security said that Iran's nuclear announcement was a mere bluff.

''The announcement that Iran can produce nuclear fuel is merely a bluff,'' Mr Vladimir Yevseyev told RIA Novosti news agency last night.

''What the Iranian leaders said about successfully completing the full nuclear cycle in laboratory conditions should not be viewed as a confirmation that the country could launch full-scale production of nuclear fuel,'' he added.

''Iran is talking about completing a full nuclear cycle, but actually it has not gone that far because the full cycle includes plutonium separation in addition to uranium enrichment, and the country has made only a few initial steps in this sphere,'' Mr Yevseyev said.

He pointed out that that it could take Iran at least three years to accumulate enough high-enriched uranium to create a nuclear weapon.

The expert also said Iran could not be considered a member of the world's nuclear club because the country had not yet conducted a single nuclear test.

The chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Mikhail Margelov told reporters that by announcing the uranium enrichment, Tehran ''made us understand the firmness of its position, and its readiness to continue nuclear developments.'' ''All this will only complicate further talks,'' the agency quoted Mr Margelov as saying. ''The uranium produced by Iran does not present any direct military threat,'' he underscored.

UNI

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