Bronwen Maddox says reining-in Iran’s ambitions could also help others to explore alternative fuels in this article in TimesOnline, with thanks to Interested.
IN FOUR months of extravagantly bad-tempered diplomacy, Iran’s new President has pulled off one small success. He has sidestepped a fight with the rest of the world tomorrow over his country”s nuclear plans.
That shows a flicker of an instinct for self-preservation by President Ahmadinejad “” one of the few compliments that it is possible to pay him since his election in June.
The reprieve, even if temporary, may have a wider benefit, too. It may sketch out an answer to a problem growing more obvious by the day: how to prevent the world’s renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power leading to the spread of nuclear weapons…
One senior European official said it was reassuring that there was “a great deal of common ground”. All the countries agreed that there should be a “significant gap in the fuel cycle” “” Iran should not be allowed to master all the techniques for making reactor fuel, which would also give it the expertise for making weapons. The plan for the moment, then, is to push Russia’s proposal of a fortnight ago. Iran would be allowed to prepare uranium in the form of gas, but enrichment of uranium into reactor fuel and reprocessing of fuel rods (another route to a bomb) would be done in Russia.
We”ll see. Iran has avoided rejecting this, a move one European official called “tactically sensible”. But it also wants to press ahead with its enrichment plant at Natanz…
At worst the Russian proposal has taken the heat off Iran. But at best it will have pointed the way to a solution for other countries wanting an alternative to expensive gas and oil…