John Bolton: Russia's Loading of Nuke Fuel Into Iran Plant Means Aug. 21 Deadline for Israeli Attack
Friday, 13 Aug 2010 01:41 PM
By: David A. Patten
News that Russia will load nuclear fuel rods into an Iranian reactor has touched off a countdown to a point of no return, a deadline by which Israel would have to launch an attack on Iran's Bushehr reactor before it becomes effectively "immune" to any assault, says former Bush administration U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton.
消息稱俄羅斯將裝載核燃料棒到伊朗核反應堆，已經引發不歸路的倒數，一個最後的死限以色列將要對伊朗的布什爾核反應堆發動攻擊，在它有效地對任何攻擊變成“免疫”之前，前布殊政府美國駐聯合國大使約翰博爾頓說。
Once the fuel rods are loaded, Bolton told Fox News on Friday afternoon, "it makes it essentially immune from attack by Israel. Because once the rods are in the reactor an attack on the reactor risks spreading radiation in the air, and perhaps into the water of the Persian Gulf."
一旦燃料棒被加載，博爾頓上週五下午告訴福克斯新聞，“它使伊朗基本上免役以色列的攻擊。因為一旦棒載入反應堆，對反應堆的攻擊加大風險在空氣中傳播輻射，及也許進入波斯灣的水。“
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared in March that Russia would start the Bushehr reactor this summer. But the announcement from a spokesman for Russia's state atomic agency to Reuters Friday sent international diplomats scrambling to head off a crisis.
The story immediately became front-page news in Israel, which has laid precise plans to carry out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities while going along with President Obama's plans to use international sanctions and diplomatic persuasion to convince Iran's clerics not to go nuclear.
Bolton made it clear that it is widely assumed that any Israeli attack on the Bushehr reactor must take place before the reactor is loaded with fuel rods.
"If they're going to do it that's the window that they have," Bolton declared. "Otherwise as I said before, once the rods are in the reactor, if you attack the reactor you're going to open it up and radiation will escape at least into the atmosphere and possibly into the waters of the Persian Gulf.
"So most people think that neither Israel nor the United States, come to that, would attack the reactor after it's been fueled."
Bolton cited the 1981 Israeli attack on Saddam Hussein's Osirak reactor outside Baghdad and the September 2007 Israeli attack on a North Korean reactor being built in Syria. Both of those strikes came before fuel rods were loaded into those reactors.
"So if it's going to happen in Bushehr it has to happen before the fuel rods go in," Bolton said.
The conversation that touched off the de facto deadline for Israeli military action was a telephone conversation with wire services involving Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, the Russian Energy State Nuclear Corp.
Novikov said: "The fuel will be loaded on Aug 21. This is the start of the physical launch” of the reactor.
"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation," Novikov said, adding that the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, will visit Bushehr Aug. 21 to conduct a ceremony for the event.
According to Bolton, once the reactor is operational, it is only a matter of time before it begins producing plutonium that could be used in a nuclear weapon.
"And in the normal operation of this reactor, in just a fairly short period of time, you could get substantial amounts of plutonium to use as nuclear weapons," Bolton told Fox.
Russia, which is operating under a $1 billion contract with Iran, has spent more than a decade building the reactor. If Russia moves forward with its plan to fuel the reactor, it could be seen as a major setback to the Obama administration's strategy of engaging Russian leaders in order to win their cooperation.
"The U.S. urged them not to send the Iranian's fuel rods," Bolton said. "They did that. The Obama administration has urged them not to insert the fuel rods in the reactors, but as they've just announced that will begin next week. What that does over time is help Iran get another route to nuclear weapons through the plutonium they could reprocess out of the spent fuel rods."
The developments mean Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon may face a stark choice: Attack the Bushehr reactor in the next 8 days, or allow it to become operational despite the certainty it would greatly enhance Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons.
Russian leaders have said the Bushehr reactor project is being closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog group. According to Iran's ISNA news agency, IAEA inspectors will be on hand to observe the fuel-rod loading process that is now scheduled to begin Aug. 21.
According to Russian officials, Iran has promised in writing to send all spent fuel rods from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, to ensure they cannot be used for nuclear weapons.
Bolton said the reactor has been "a hole" in American foreign policy for over a decade.
The failure to demand it be shut down began in the Bush years, he said, and continues with the Obama administration "under what I believe is the mistaken theory that Iran is entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy."
"I don't think Iran is entitled to that, or I don't think we ought to allow it to happen, because they're manifestly violating any number of obligations under the non-proliferation treaty not to seek nuclear weapons. But this has been a hole in American policy for some number of years, and Iran and Russia are obviously exploiting it," Bolton said.
Russia’s move would put Iran "in a much better position overall," he said, adding, "I think this is a very delicate point, as I say, it closes off to the Israelis one possible target for pre-emptive military action.
U.N. sanctions against Iran, he said, "have not had and will not have any material effect on Iran's push to have deliverable nuclear weapons."
© Newsmax. All rights reserved.
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/John--Bolton--Iran--Nuclear--israel/2010/08/13/id/367449
伊朗反應堆裝載核燃料
2010-8-14
圖：伊朗布什爾核電站\法新社【大公報訊】據法新社德黑蘭13日消息：伊朗原子能組織主席薩利希13日說，位於伊朗南部城市布什爾的該國首座核電站，將於下周裝載核燃料。這個由俄羅斯建設的高度敏感項目此前已被耽擱多年。
伊朗法爾斯通訊社援引薩利希說：「我們準備下周在站內裝載核燃料……然後我們需要7、8天時間把它轉移到反應堆去。
「8月21日，燃料將在（布什爾核電站）發動機所在的建築物內進行轉移。」
「整體來說將有165支燃料棒。」他補充，反應堆將在9月中左右開始運作。
布什爾核電站位於伊朗南部港口城市布什爾附近。1995年，伊朗與俄羅斯簽訂總金額達10億美元的布什爾輕水反應堆核電站項目合同，俄方負責提供核燃料、設備、技術以及人員培訓等。但項目因連串延誤而出現瑕疵，而這個問題在伊朗核計劃引發僵局之際變得非常棘手。
由於涉及核能技術等問題，俄羅斯與伊朗的核電站合作一直受到西方國家的指責。過去數月，隨著俄羅斯在伊朗核問題上的態度趨向強硬，俄伊關係走向低潮。但俄羅斯總理普京今年已證實該核電站在今年夏天投入使用。
西方國家指控蘊藏豐富石油的伊朗，以民用核計劃作為掩護，秘密開發核武器。但伊朗強調，其核項目純粹作和平用途，而且它需要核能，以應付在人口急速膨脹下化石燃料最終將會耗盡的局面。
俄羅斯國家原子能公司的官員強調，該設計裝機容量1000兆瓦的核電站要展開大規模運作，仍需一段時間，因為該設施經3、4個月將以1%的極低功率運作。
http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/10/08/14/YM-1295614.htm
沒有留言:
發佈留言