WASHINGTON (AP) - A US program to keep Russian weapons scientists from providing nuclear expertise to terrorists has been financing Russian research institutes that separately have been helping Iran build its new nuclear power reactor in Bushehr, Iran, a congressional committee has learned.

Democratic Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, raised questions about the program and its possible link to Iran on a letter Wednesday to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, citing information the committee received from Russian sources.

“It is troubling that DOE would subsidize or otherwise support Russian institutes providing technology and services to the Iranian nuclear program,” Dingell wrote in the letter also signed by Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, chairman of the panel’s investigations subcommittee.

Iran has said the 1,000-megawatt Bushehr power plant, the country’s first nuclear reactor, will begin operating this summer after receiving from Russia nearly all of the nuclear fuel it needs to operate.

A report by the Government Accountability Office in January said its investigators had found that in many cases the program now was funneling support to scientists working at thriving Russian research institutes including those involved in nuclear programs.

Documents provided Dingell’s committee by the GAO, but not in the original report, included “power point” presentations from two leading Russian research institutes involved in the U.S. program that described work also being done for the Iranian nuclear program, the congressmen said.

The committee found that one Russian institute, the Scientific Research Institute of Measuring Systems, received $2.65 million for geologic mapping projects under the US program. The institute also has worked on automated nuclear reactor controls for the Bushehr plant, according to the documents obtained by the House panel.

This nuclear power plant will be capable of producing enough fissionable material per year to make 20 Atomic Bombs.

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