Policy paper urges the U.S. and Russia to provide fuel for nuclear power plants that is made available to all nations, including Iran

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Policy paper urges the U.S. and Russia to provide fuel for nuclear power plants that is made available to all nations, including Iran
Recommendations stem from Baker Institute/Carnegie Endowment workshop

The United States and Russia can still reach an agreement with Iran regarding nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, according to a new policy paper from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

“There is still time for diplomacy, and the United States and Russia should work together in an effort to reach agreement with Iran,” the paper states.

The paper, published online today, summarizes recommendations from a March 10 workshop held at the Baker Institute, where a group of 15 scientists, business professionals and former officials from the United States and Russia met to discuss how commercial projects have contributed to the resolution of nuclear proliferation problems in the past in the context of U.S.-Russia cooperation, and how those precedents might be applied to resolving the nuclear stand-off with Iran.

Among the recommendations:

* The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should focus on developing a broad plan to provide fuel for nuclear power plants on an assured basis, and the plan should be available to all nations seeking nuclear energy, including Iran.

* The IAEA must be involved in inspections and Iran must provide a series of assurances that it is not converting uranium for enrichment.

* Iranians must be engaged more effectively in a discussion of the future of nuclear power, with more attention given to the back end of the fuel cycle and international storage of spent fuel in Russia.

* The U.S. and Russia should move expeditiously into negotiation of an Agreement for Nuclear Cooperation that could be launched at the G-8 summit meeting in St. Petersburg this July.

The workshop participants agreed that nuclear energy cannot expand on a proliferation-resistant manner if the problem of Iran’s nuclear program continues to lead to an impasse. They advocated that consideration be given to how new nuclear energy initiatives like the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership relate to the effort to solve the nuclear problem with Iran.

The full text of the policy paper is available on the Baker Institute’s Web site, http://bakerinstitute.org.