Iran to fire up its first nuclear power plant

Ali Ansari, an Iran expert at Scotland's St Andrews university said Tehran and its foes were likely to exaggerate the importance of the start-up of Bushehr.

“It will obviously have a very theatrical opening but the delays have meant that the power plant is a very old model and the contribution to the national grid is very small. It is also, as far as I understand, a light water reactor which cannot produce anything for a bomb,” he said.

“If I was in the U.S. (administration) I would congratulate them on the opening, to reinforce the view that you have nothing against well monitored civil nuclear power.”

As a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear power, something sought by several other oil-rich nations in the Gulf.

But many countries question whether Iran's motives are purely peaceful, pointing out that Tehran failed to declare its enrichment activities for many years and then accusing the Islamic Republic of not being fully transparent with U.N. inspectors after they were exposed.

Russia, which backed the U.N. sanctions passed in June, has said the checks in place at Bushehr make it an “anchor that keeps Iran in the non-proliferation regime.”

Russia agreed in 1995 to build the Bushehr plant on the site of a project begun in the 1970s by German company Siemens, but the project was delayed amid delicate diplomacy with Tehran and the West. Iranian politicians have accused Moscow of delaying it in an effort to influence Iran.

Russia's status as an exporter of nuclear technology might be increasingly valuable as developing countries seek nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels.

But that is unlikely to include helping Iran build the 20 nuclear power plants it says it wants, as international sanctions are likely to stifle any future deals, according to non-proliferation analyst Fitzpatrick.

“No country is going to sell it to them ... Russia was exempted from sanctions and export controls because Bushehr was grandfathered. I believe there would be strong pressure on Russia not to build another one.”

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