MOSCOW: Russia has failed to secure guarantees from Iran that Tehran will return spent nuclear fuel which could be converted into weapons-grade plutonium, despite repeated assertions to the contrary from Moscow.

Internal Russian government documents obtained by the Guardian show that no agreement has been reached on the sensitive issue of how to handle the used nuclear fuel from a power station being built by Russia in Iran, which is due to come into operation in a couple of years.

Russia’s nuclear co-operation and military deals with Iran have become a major bone of contention with the US since September 11. The Russian construction of the 1,000-megawatt reactor at Bushehr, 800 kms south of Tehran, is at the centre of this tension.

Russia’s ministry of atomic energy, which will earn 800 million dollars from the contracts, says the risk of nuclear arms proliferation is non-existent and has stated repeatedly that the spent fuel is to be repatriated to Russia for storage or reprocessing. But the confidential documents — a paper written for the Kremlin by the atomic energy ministry — contradict that assurance.

The paper states: “The question of managing the spent nuclear fuel is absent in the agreement between the governments of Russia and Iran on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Iranian territory

“Negotiations are taking place on the return of the spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation.”

In an interview with Russian television earlier this month, Alexander Rumyantsev, Russia’s atomic energy minister, said: “We have agreed with Iran that the used fuel will be returned to Russia. This is fulfilment by Russia of our obligations on the non-proliferation of weapons-grade fissile materials.”

He made a similar declaration last November.

The lack of an agreement suggests Iran is playing for time and may want to retain the spent fuel which, when reprocessed, yields weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.

“Iran would be in possession of weapons-usable material, plutonium,” said Tobias Muenchmeyer, a nuclear expert for Greenpeace in Berlin. “For a country like Iran, it would not be difficult to reprocess the spent fuel and isolate the plutonium. It would be a matter of weeks, not months.”

The disclosures will increase broad unease about Russia’s determination to push ahead with the lucrative contracts for the Bushehr plant, and reinforce US criticism of the project.

Despite the recent warming of ties between the White House and the Kremlin, Russia’s nuclear assistance to Iran is one of the biggest irritants in the new US-Russian relationship.

In February President Vladimir Putin ordered the atomic energy ministry to provide an “analysis” of Russia’s plans to import nuclear waste, a project critics contend will turn Russia into the world’s nuclear dump.

The documents recognize that the Iranian connection could scupper his plans to make Russia the world’s leading importer of nuclear waste, a project his ministry says could earn Russia 20 billion dollars over 10 years.

The US controls the world market in spent nuclear fuel, commanding a veto over what happens to 80-90 per cent of the highly radioactive waste.

For the Russian import scheme to work, American’s blessing is required.

Russia needs a political agreement with the US for the nuclear imports plan to be feasible, the documents state. “For a long time now the US has been making the issue of such an agreement conditional on Russia refusing nuclear co-operation with Iran,” the documents say. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.