Iran's lonely walk down the nuclear path

The Bushehr nuclear reactor is due to come online in September.

 On August 21, amid nationwide celebrations, Russian engineers started loading fuel into the Bushehr plant, Iran’s controversial 1.000MW nuclear power project located on the coast of the Persian Gulf. Once the required 80 tonnes of uranium fuel have been installed, Bushehr will come online this month, according to Iranian officials.

This moment has been long in the coming. Construction on the reactor was started in the 1975 by Siemens, who abandoned the project after the Shah’s rule was replaced by the Islamic Republic in 1979. Work on the plant was resumed by Russia in 1995.

Bushehr has been at the centre of much controversy, based on the concerns of Western powers, and the US and Israel in particular, that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. Only days before the commencement of the fuelling process, John Bolton, the former US envoy to the United Nations, seemed to implicitly endorse an Israeli air strike on the site, stating that without intervention, ”Iran will achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States in the Middle East really has and that is a functioning nuclear reactor."

In reality, the likelihood of an attack on Bushehr is remote, not only because there are more worthwhile targets to hit.

The fuelling process is being observed by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who will ensure that none of the fuel is being siphoned off for military purposes. In addition, Iran has signed a fuel repatriation agreement, which stipulates that spent uranium will be shipped back to Russia. With these precautions in place, Bushehr does not pose a significant proliferation risk.

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