U.S., IRAN SANCTIONS UPDOWN

PLATTS - 30 Jan 2020 - The US government has renewed for 60 days four waivers allowing Russian and other companies to continue some work with Iran's civilian nuclear program, preventing the sanctioning of a state-owned Russian company that provides one fifth of the enriched uranium supplied to US utilities.

Brian Hook, special representatives for Iran at the Department of State, said in a briefing Thursday that four waivers allowing companies to work with Iran's nuclear energy program were renewed in order to maintain non-proliferation constraints on Iran. The waivers had been set to expire after Wednesday.

The Trump administration had been renewing five sanction waivers involving Iran since 2018, but ended one allowing work converting a uranium enrichment facility to medical isotope production on November 18 after Iran announced it was resuming uranium enrichment there. The initial renewals of the waivers had been for 120 days, but that shrank to 90 days last year and the extension announced Thursday was the shortest yet at 60 days.

The potential that the waivers would lapse has raised concerns since 2019 that state-owned Russian nuclear company Rosatom, which does work for Iran's civilian nuclear program but also supplies a fifth of US enriched uranium, could be sanctioned, disrupting the supply of nuclear fuel to US utilities.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents nuclear utilities in the US as well as other companies involved in nuclear energy, in November had welcomed the extension of the waivers.

At the same time as it renewed the waivers Thursday, the US invoked sanctions on the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, which operates the country's nuclear facilities, including its only power reactor. The AEOI plays "a big role in Iran breaching its key nuclear commitments," Hook said. That includes exceeding the previously agreed limits on uranium stockpiles and enrichment levels.

Iran has said it will no longer abide by the limits contained in the Iran nuclear deal because the administration of President Donald Trump rejected the deal in 2018. The 2015 Iran nuclear agreement provided relief from US and European sanctions on Iran in exchange for that country's agreement to sharply curtail uranium enrichment and stockpiles of uranium.

Trump pulled the US out of the agreement after evidence was discovered that Iran had pursued a secret program to develop nuclear weapons.

The waivers that were renewed Thursday covered conversion of the Arak heavy-water reactor to light-water cooling, support for the operating Bushehr-1 nuclear unit, provision of fuel for a research reactor and transfer out of Iran of spent fuel, Hook said. The actions are limited and prevent the reprocessing of plutonium or the need for uranium enrichment, both non-proliferation goals, he noted.

Tension between Iran and the US has soared as the American campaign of "maximum pressure" – intended to force Iran to strike a more restrictive nuclear agreement – has increased. The US military carried out a strike killing Qassem Soleimani, a leader of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, on January 3; Iran retaliated by firing missiles on an Iraqi base where US forces were stationed, injuring dozens.

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