Iran evacuating villages near new nuclear plant

NICOSIA — Iran will begin to evacuate all the villages close to the Bushehr nuclear plant, although the nuclear reactors are not yet operational.

Evacuation of people living within a 10-kilometer radius of the unfinished nuclear reactors will begin within the next two months and will end within one year, the Iranian daily Hayat-E No paper said Wednesday.

United States and Israeli intelligence sources have said that the nuclear reactors in the southern city of Bushehr are part of an infrastructure for Iran's nuclear weapons program. They said that the Bushehr project serves as a cover for classified programs that have been concealed from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

For its part, Teheran said the plant is being constructed solely for civilian energy purposes and the IAEA conducts regular inspections of the site.

The two Russian-manufactured reactors are expected to be operational by 2004.

"A team of European experts is at the Bushehr site now to examine the possible effects of radiation," an unnamed official told the daily. "The first delivery of auxiliary equipment for the facility is due to arrive from Ukraine in the coming months," the official said.

In 1995, the dormant project was revamped when Moscow agreed to supply Teheran with the reactors. In 1979, Germany had ordered the initial prime contractor for the project, the German group Siemens, to abandon the project after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

In an unrelated development, Iran has won a United Nations tender for the second time to sell 750 tons of soap to Iraq as part of the food for oil program.