IRAN NEGOTIATING WITH RUSSIA FOR A REACTOR

ISRAEL LINE
Wednesday, February 18, 1998

  Iran is maintaining contacts with the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry known
as Minatom in the hope of purchasing a 40 megawatt nuclear reactor, HA'ARETZ
reported. Moreover, Iran is also conducting talks toward the purchase of
heavy water from Russia, which would enhance the production of plutonium in
a nuclear reactor of this size, and facilitate the manufacture of nuclear
weapons.
  Should Russia decide to sell such a reactor to Iran, it would be a direct
violation of the commitment made by Russian Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin to United States Vice President Al Gore in 1995. So far, Russia
has provided Iran with technology for electricity-generating nuclear
reactors in the Iranian coastal city of Busheir which are not designed to
produce weapons-grade plutonium.
  "If Iran seeks to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, a 40-megawatt
dedicated reactor is a far more efficient means than the Busheir reactor for
the production of electricity," said Professor Gerald Steinberg, an
arms-control expert at Bar-Ilan University.
  In recent months, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov has
strenuously denied to Israel that Moscow would sell a reactor that could be
used in a military program. Still, sources say, contacts with Minatom are
ongoing.



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