In an interview with the Washington Post , former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton warned that the Iranian regime will be able to extract enough plutonium from the nuclear fuel shipped from Russia. He said in this regard: “I oppose this plan because I do not think Iran can be trusted with any significant aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. It is one reason why I worry about the current Russian fuel shipments for the Bushehr reactor, and what could happen when fuel rods are inserted into the reactor and it comes on line. Even if Iran agrees to allow Russia to take back the reactor’s spent fuel, that spent fuel cannot be shipped immediately…”

He added “If Iran were to confiscate… loads of fuel and run them through the reactor, U.S. government experts estimated that Iran would be able to extract enough plutonium from all of the spent fuel for perhaps 50-60 nuclear weapons.”