[ RadSafe ] Iran

[Peter Bossew]

Does anybody have updated information about Iran's engagement in the 
Eurodif plant ?
I think knowing the current status of the Iran-Eurodif contract could 
add to the enrichment discussion.

In 1975 (i.e. still during the Shah regime) Iran invested 1 bill. USD in 
the plant plus got the right for its (future, at that time) civilian N 
program (allegedly 23 NPPs !) being supplied with enriched U.
After the revolution of 1979 Iran first wanted to pull out and get the 
investment back; soon after they reversed their position, while now the 
Eurodif consortium wanted them out. Some years of troubles followed, in 
1986 the boss of Eurodif was killed allegedly by Iranian agents and in 
1989 a French plane was exploded by the Islamic Jihad over Africa (171 
dead). It seems that such "arguments" contributed to convincing France 
to renew the contract in 1991, apparently basically in the Iranian 
sense. However it is difficult to find information about the actual 
content of the contract and its current status. It is suspected that it 
contains some secret paragraphs of political relevance.

A lot of information incl. references can be found on the NTI's Iran 
page, http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1826.html . 
(However this is a US source and must therefore be taken cum grano salis.)

Btw., I am more concerned about Iran's Pu program, than about U 
enrichment. For some reason this is much less frequently discussed.


Peter Bossew



-----------------------------------------------------
Peter Bossew 

European Commission (EC) 
Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) 

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Email: peter.bossew at jrc.it 

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