MOSCOW — Russia on Tuesday angrily shrugged off U.S. objections to it building a nuclear reactor in Iran, and said that work was already under way to build a second one at the same site.
''There is not a single piece of evidence that we are helping or might help Iran develop nuclear weapons potential,'' Nuclear Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov said at a news conference. ''It's all pure politics.''
Russia signed a contract in 1995 to build the first reactor at Iran's Bushehr power plant by 2003 for an estimated $800 million. The United States has strongly objected to the project, fearing the technology could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Moscow and Tehran maintain the plant can be used only for civilian purposes.
Iran had previously asked Moscow to conduct a feasibility study on building three more reactors on the site, and Adamov confirmed Tuesday that work had already begun on the second one.
The first reactor will be completed as planned by 2003, ministry spokesman Vitaly Nasonov said Tuesday.
Construction of the Bushehr plant was started by Germany's Siemens before the 1979 Islamic revolution and then abandoned.
Moscow has repeatedly insisted that the Bushehr project allows the struggling Russian nuclear energy industry to earn much-needed hard currency and dismissed U.S. warnings that civilian nuclear projects could help Iran develop nuclear weapons know-how.
''If we follow that logic we may as well ban any education in Iran on the grounds that the knowledge of integral equations could help someone make calculations for nuclear weapons,'' Adamov said.
The United States has expressed concern about illegal technology exports to states it considers terrorism sponsors, such as Iran.
Washington is also angry over Russia's plans to sell Iran conventional weapons.
Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev visited Tehran last month and signed several agreements on military cooperation, the details of which haven't been released.
Russian officials have pledged to abide by international agreements banning the proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies, but Moscow warned Washington last November that it was abandoning a 1995 pledge not to sell tanks and other battlefield weapons to Iran.
Washington is trying to persuade Moscow to change its mind and has threatened economic sanctions.