A US program aimed at preventing former Soviet nuclear weapons scientists from migrating to other nations’ nuclear programs may be benefiting Iran’s effort to develop nuclear weapons, two key lawmakers have charged.
Representatives John Dingell, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak, who chairs its subcommittee on oversight and investigations, accused the Department of Energy of having subsidized two Russian nuclear institutes that are helping Iran build its first power-generating reactor. The State Department has asserted that the reactor at Bushehr has provided cover for Iran to obtain sensitive technology for its weapons development effort. The two Michigan Democrats said that the two Russian institutes involved with Bushehr—the Scientific Research Institute of Measurements and the Federal Scientific and Industrial Center of Nuclear Machine Building—have together received $3.4 million in funding from DOE’s Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP). The 13-year-old program was designed to provide work...
