On 12 September Iran brought its first nuclear power plant in Bushehr online, connecting it to the country's electrical grid. Iranian officials at the opening ceremonythat the 1,000 megawatt planthas begun generating electricity at 40 percent of its capacity and will reach full capacity by the year's end following further testingQuite aside from demonstrating Iran's touching post-Fukushima faith in nuclear energy despite being a seismically active country, Bushehr represents a Rorschach test of sorts for all the fears and anxieties in the Middle East, in which everyone looking at the facility has his preconceptions reaffirmedAxis of Evil" charter member Iran insists that Bushehr represents the government's determination to husband is vast oil reserves by promoting other energy sources, as its economy has hammered by morethan three decades Iran has been subjected to increasingly militant rhetoric from both Tel Aviv and Washington over its civilian nuclear energy program, with thinly veiled threats of possible military action if Tehran doesnot abandon its efforts, even though they are completely complaint under the terms of the Nuclearwhich Iran has signed and which Tehran pointedly underlines, it's nemesis and harshest critic Israel has not. Russia signed a $1 billion contract in 1995 for building the Bushehr plant and last month the country's Rosatom supplied the power station's uranium fuel. The United States urged Russia to delay the startup until Iran proves that it's not developing nuclear weapons, to no avail, as Moscow replied that that the Bushehr project has been closely supervised Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran had signed a pledge to ship all the spent uranium fuel from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, excluding the possibility that any of it could used to make nuclear weapons.Russia has insisted that the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperateand fulfill its obligations under international nuclear nonproliferation agreementsMany aspects of Iran's uranium enrichment activities trouble the international community, so much sothat in June theSecurity Council slapped a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear The sanctions followed Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can be used for the production of fuel for power plants when uranium is enriched to a level of 3-4 percentpurity, as well as material for nuclear warheads if enriched to more 90 percent purity. Equally worrying is the fact that Iran received its centrifuge designs from Pakistan, the world's first Muslimnuclear state, which developed its own nuclear weapons in response to India'sIran continues to insist that its nuclear is purely peaceful, aimed at producing nuclear energybut the United States and Israel in particular believe that Tehran's real goal is to produce atomic weaponry.And Israel has more reason than most to be concerned, as it developed its own nuclear weapons in the1950s and 1960s at its Dimona reactor by hoodwinkinga fact finally proven in 1986Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who leaked details subsequently kidnapped back to Israel, tried on charges of treason and espionage and subsequently served an 18-year prison sentence. If any nation has a concept of how to covertly develop nuclear weaponry, it is Israel.international law is not, despite the efforts of the Bush 2 administration, the issue of a nation's unilaterally "cherry picking" through intelligence for material supporting national agendas stands in stark contrast to building an international consensus for general behavior through the rule of law. Unilaterally ascribing the worst possible motives to a nation rather than letting international law resolve issues will eventually leave the globe in the jungle, with survival of the strongest.Any Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, unlike its attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981or its 2007 strikeSyrian nuclear facilities, will become an international incident, as at Buhshehr alone, according to Russian Federation Energy Minister Sergei Shmatkoaround 1,500peoplenow work at Bushsehr and "several hundred peopledepending on our agreement will be engaged in operating the plantThe world has uneasily lived with Pakistan's nuclearMuslim bombfor 13 yearsWhatever the reality of Iran's nuclearif it does indeed mask a weapons component, why would Iran feeltempted to use it to strike Israel, as it would inevitably provoke massive retaliation from Israel's nuclear arsenal, estimated at several hundred atomic weapons, deployed by a triad of aircraft, missiles and submarines.
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