Source: Russia, Iran May Sign Nuke Deal This Month

[bocian]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is preparing to sign a deal with Iran this month to start atomic fuel shipments for a Moscow-built nuclear reactor there, a Russian nuclear source said Monday.

The move is certain to enrage the United States which says Iran can use Russian fuel to secretly make a nuclear bomb. Washington has long called on Russia to drop the plans.

The source in Russia's Atomic Energy Agency said Moscow and Tehran had largely settled all remaining technicalities and were preparing to sign the accord when Alexander Rumyantsev, the agency's head, travels to Iran at the end of February.

"This time the deal will be signed. Of course you can't be 100 percent certain about anything but the probability of that is very high," said the source, who is close to the Iran talks.

The comments confirmed earlier hints by Moscow-based diplomats that Russia and Tehran had overcome disagreement over the deal's terms and were moving closer to signing it after years of talks.

The source said the first containers with fuel would be supplied about two months after signing.

The 1,000-megawatt, $1 billion plant will be then launched in late 2005 and reach full capacity in 2006.

Spent fuel will be sent back to Siberian storage units after about a decade of use -- a condition Russia thinks will remove U.S. concerns that Iran would use the material to make weapons.

TVEL, Russia's state nuclear fuel producer, has for years kept the fuel for Iran's Bushehr plant at a storage facility in Siberia, awaiting Rumyantsev's order to begin shipments.

Oil-rich Iran denies it is developing atomic arms and says its nuclear programs are for peaceful power generation needed to meet the energy demands of its growing population.

Sunday, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani said there was nothing the West could offer Tehran that would persuade it to scrap a nuclear program.