IAEA/IRAN: IAEA SAFETY PEER REVIEW MISSION TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L UNVIE VIENNA 000048 SIPDIS DOE FOR NA-20, NA-24, NA-25, NE-1, NE-6 NRC FOR OIP DOANE, HENDERSON, SCHWARTZMAN NSC STAFF FOR SCHEINMAN, CONNERY STATE FOR S/SANAC, ISN NEPHEW, ADAMS, IO CONNORS, DETEMPLE E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/11/2023 TAGS: AORC KNNP IAEA IR ENGR SUBJECT: IAEA/IRAN: IAEA SAFETY PEER REVIEW MISSION TO IRAN'S NULCEAR REGULATORY AUTHORITY REF: A. (A) UNVIE 020 ¶B. (B) 09 UNVIE 477 Classified By: AMBASSADOR GLYN T. DAVIES, REASONS 1.4 (b) AND (d) ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The IAEA continues its nuclear safety-related activities with Iran in anticipation of the start-up of the Bushehr nuclear power reactor. The Iranian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (INRA) requested a safety peer review mission from the IAEA in mid 2008 (ref A). INRA prepared a self-assessment in advance of the mission, per IAEA guidance, and the IAEA performed a preparatory mission in Tehran in July 2009. The IAEA mission itself is scheduled to take place February 20 ) March 2, 2010. END SUMMARY. PREPARATORY WORK FOR THE IAEA MISSION -------------- ¶2. (C) Msnoff met recently with David Graves, an AmCit working in the Regulatory Activities Section of the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, who is in charge of the Iranian Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission. Graves reports that INRA prepared its self-assessment preceding the mission in accordance with IAEA guidance. Iran submitted the self-assessment to the IAEA for review in April 2009. He stated that the document was weak technically (i.e., brief, not fulsome and not technically detailed) but said such low quality is very common for a developing Member State that is new to nuclear power and the IRRS process. He said this self-assessment did not stand out as any worse than some of the others he had reviewed, and the IAEA met with INRA officials in Vienna in April 2009 to discuss improvements to the assessment. ¶3. (C) Graves led a preparatory mission to Tehran in July ¶2009. He was accompanied by the IRRS team leader, Ms. Olina Mykolaichuk, who is head of the Ukrainian regulatory body, and Mr. Jean-Paul Samain, from the Belgian regulatory body. The purpose of the trip was to review the revised safety assessment and discuss preparations for the upcoming IRRS mission. Typically these preparatory meetings are only two days, but this mission extended to four. Graves stated that this extra time was needed because there had been a change in the head of the safety department in INRA. The new head, Mr. Kamarn Sepanloo, was not familiar with the process and much of the information that was covered in the April meeting had to be reviewed. IRRS TEAM -------------- ¶4. (C) The IRRS mission will be conducted February 20 to March 2, 2010. Graves will be the only IAEA member of the peer review team. There will be 8 other team members, coming from the regulatory bodies in Ukraine, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland. ¶5. (C) Graves stated that INRA was pushing for there to be a Russian on the team. However, Graves felt because the Russians were so heavily involved in the building and prospective operation of the Bushehr facilities, that they would be biased. Graves argued that this should be a truly independent peer review. ¶6. (C) IAEA,s Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) has been pushing the Regulatory Affairs Section to incorporate a representative from OLA on IRRS missions. Until recently, the eighth member of the Iran IRRS team was supposed to come from OLA. This would have been the first mission in which OLA participated. However, recently the OLA officer backed out. Graves did not know why OLA backed out or why the office did not find a replacement. Graves is now looking instead for a replacement from Slovakia. (COMMENT: UNVIE will seek further insight from OLA as to their posture toward the IRRS. END COMMENT.) MAKING THE REPORT PUBLIC -------------- ¶7. (C) IAEA encourages all Member States that receive an IRRS mission to allow the IAEA to make the report of the mission available to other Member States. This is one of the advantages to having the missions -- so that other countries can learn best practices. Graves stated he is encouraging Iran to allow for release of its report. Iranian officials, however, made no commitment and stated that they did not plan to make any decision in this regard until after the report was finalized. ¶8. (C) COMMENT: Iran will certainly gauge whether the final IRRS report is positive for Iran before considering whether to release it publicly. It is likely that a Slovakian representative will participate in the Iranian IRRS. Both Graves and IAEA TC Program manager Fathi Kangi have indicated that the recent European Commission interpretation of the EU-imposed sanctions in light of Iran's violation of its IAEA and UNSC obligations (ref A) did not prohibit participation in an IRRS mission. END COMMENT. DAVIES