ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: DEBKAfile
17August2010 9:50amPDT
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decided it was safe to go ahead and load Iran's first nuclear reactor with fuel on Aug. 21 - effectively making it active - after the Kremlin's weekend announcement of this intent seemed not to trouble the US and Israel, DEBKAfile's sources in Moscow and Tehran report. He decided the two governments had either been caught flatfooted or come to terms with a Russian-sponsored nuclear project that would allow Iran to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
The impression Russian officials tried to convey that the reactor would only go on stream in late September was meant to deflect US or Israeli pressure, which in the event was not forthcoming.
Monday, Aug. 16, therefore, Moscow further announced that Sergei Kirienko, the head of the Russian state nuclearcorporation Rosatom, would visit Bushehr Friday, Aug. 20, to see for himself how far the work on the 1,200-1,300 MWe reactor had progressed. He expects to be accompanied by Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko.
Moscow furthermore disclosed it had guaranteed a 10-year supply of reactor fuel for Bushehr.
Then, on Aug. 21, Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, will join the Russian officials at a press conference to coincide with the transfer of fuel to the Bushehr reactor and mark its effective inauguration. Salehi also announced that Iran would build another 10 installations for enriching uranium inside protected mountain caves - in addition to the three known facilities which brought Iran under UN and Western sanctions.
The announcements from Moscow, our sources say, broadcast due warning to would-be attackers that the Iranian reactor at Bushehr is now under Russia's protection.
