IAEA/IRAN: NUCLEAR SAFETY/REGULATORY MISSIONS

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000288 SENSITIVE SIPDIS ISN/RA DANIEL, NEPHEW, ALLEN-CLOSE; IO/T DETEMPLE; ALSO FOR ISN/MNSA, L/NPV CA PLS NOTE PARA 4 RE AMCIT TRAVEL TO IRAN NRC/OIC DOANE, SCHWARTZMAN NSC STAFF CONNERY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ENRG KNNP CPAS IAEA OSCE RS IR SUBJECT: IAEA/IRAN: NUCLEAR SAFETY/REGULATORY MISSIONS LIKELY DELAYED TO 2010 REF: A. MAY 28 ALLEN-CLOSE/KESSLER EMAIL ¶B. UNVIE 184 ¶C. UNVIE 116 -------------- Timing for Pre-OSART -------------- ¶1. (U) According to Miro Lipar, head of the IAEA's Operational Safety Section, who will lead the preliminary Operational Safety Review Team (pre-OSART) in Iran, the mission has not yet been scheduled and will probably not happen in 2009. He stated that there are several things that need to happen before the pre-OSART mission can occur. First, there needs to be one more preparation meeting between IAEA Secretariat staff and Iran to finalize the details about the scope of the mission; this has not been scheduled. Lipar tried to schedule the preparatory meeting for August or early September and was told by Iranian counterparts that was not a good time because of Ramadan. The Iranian side said the preparatory meeting will have to be scheduled after September. ¶2. (U) In addition, Iran has not yet completed its self-assessment. This documentation needs to be completed and submitted to the pre-OSART team for review before the mission can be conducted. Iran just notified Lipar that it will be asking the IAEA's Technical Cooperation Department (TC) for help in putting together the self-assessment. (Note: Although not stated, it was clear that Lipar had thought that the self-assessment was close to finished before he received this information from Iran. End Note.) Lipar stated that Iran had asked that this assistance from TC be provided in October and that it would take about a month to put together. If IAEA receives the self-assessment in November (which according to Lipar is optimistic),then the pre-OSART team will need about a month to review it before it performs the mission. He stated the earliest the mission could take place would be "early next year". ¶3. (U) He also stated that it was clear to everyone that the reactor would not start this summer but that Iran will not adjust the date until after the election in September. -------------- U.S. Expert Participation? -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Pursuant to Ref A email, MsnOff sought confirmation from IAEA's Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) about the applicability of privileges and immunities (P-I) should a U.S. expert take part in IAEA-sponsored teams in Iran, such as the above Pre-OSART or an Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission. As stated in Ref B, the IAEA told MsnOff the IRRS should also be performed prior to reactor start-up. Iran has not yet set a date for the IRRS mission. Wolfram Tonhauser of OLA confirmed to MsnOff that Iran has a standing agreement with the IAEA for P-I, which would apply to the U.S. expert. Tonhauser also told MsnOff that, to date, there have been no problems encountered with Iran in implementation of its P-I agreement. Tonhauser said experts traveling for the IAEA are normally given a special certificate for their passport noting that that they are traveling under IAEA authority; they travel on their national passports. SCHULTE